OUR MISSION
The California Low-Income Consumer Coalition strives to ensure that all people, regardless of their income or background, have opportunities under the law to achieve their full potential.
Every year, dozens of bills are introduced in the California Legislature that touch on issues affecting low-income consumers, including access to credit, arbitration, auto lending, bankruptcy, car rentals, debt collection, foreclosures, identity theft, medical bills, payday lending, student loans, towing, and utility services. Consumer bills often disproportionately affect low-income Californians, and, in particular, communities of color, who are more likely to enter the marketplace hampered by a lack of financial resources, language access issues, and a history of discrimination. As a result, many of the indigent are easy prey for the unscrupulous.
It is CLICC’s mission to right the balance. We seek to ensure that all consumers in California have their voices heard, and their needs recognized, by the Legislature. Low-income Californians ought to be able both to access the protections of California law and to grasp the opportunities of California’s economy. To that end, we work to build a state, and a future, in which consumer rights and economic justice are fully recognized and firmly established.
OUR TEAM
OUR COALITION
Bet Tzedek
Founded in 1974, the mission of Bet Tzedek (Hebrew for “House of Justice”) is to act upon a central tenet of Jewish law and tradition: “Tzedek, Tzedek, tirdof—justice, justice, you shall pursue.” The doctrine establishes an obligation to advocate the just causes of the most vulnerable members of society. Consistent with this mandate, Bet Tzedek provides free legal assistance to eligible low-income residents, particularly in Los Angeles County, regardless of their racial, religious, or ethnic background.
Centro Legal De La Raza
Founded in 1969, Centro Legal de la Raza is a comprehensive legal services agency protecting and advancing the rights of immigrant, low-income, and Latino communities through bilingual legal representation, education, and advocacy. By combining quality legal services with know-your-rights education and youth development, Centro Legal promotes access to justice for thousands of individuals and families each year throughout Northern and Central California.
Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto
Founded in 1969, Community Legal Services of East Palo Alto (CLSEPA) provides legal assistance to low-income individuals and families in East Palo Alto and the surrounding communities of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Practice areas include housing, immigration, and economic advancement. CLSEPA provide legal assistance and advice to over 6,000 community members per year. Volunteer attorneys, paralegals, law students, and community volunteers work with staff members to provide life-changing legal services to residents in need.
Contra Costa Senior Legal Services
For over 40 years, Contra Costa Senior Legal Services (CCSLS) has been dedicated to protecting the rights of older residents aged 60 and older in Contra Costa County. CCSLS provides free legal services that improve the quality of life for clients, assisting in such areas as preservation of housing, prevention of abuse, and planning for incapacity.
Elder Law & Advocacy
Elder Law & Advocacy is a caring group of experienced elder-law staff and trained volunteers who serve over 8,000 seniors annually in both San Diego and Imperial Counties. We provide free and low-cost civil legal services, Medicare and Medicare related counseling and advocacy, referrals to community senior service providers, and community education. The majority of services are offered at no-cost to qualifying seniors.
La Raza Centro Legal
La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco Advocacy is a multicultural community social justice center based in the Mission District of San Francisco. Born out of the civil rights and Chicano movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s, Centro Legal was founded in 1973 by Latino law students to fill a gap in the availability of economically and culturally accessible legal services for the Bay Area’s Latino population. Since our founding, we have established a reputation of credibility in the community: as a source of trustworthy legal advice and referrals, as a place where clients will be treated with dignity and respect and where they will find advocates willing to fight for them and with them.
Legal Aid of Marin
Legal Aid of Marin's mission is to provide access to the civil justice system to low-income, vulnerable and otherwise underserved residents of Marin County. We strive for practical solutions to client problems through quality legal service. Areas of focus include: elder law; debt law; employment law; and housing law.
Legal Assistance to the Elderly - San Francisco
Legal Assistance to the Elderly's mission is to protect and advance the right of San Francisco’s seniors and adults with disabilities to be housed, healthy, financially stable, and safe. When eviction, elder abuse, problems with benefits or creditors threaten, LAE is the lifeline.
Public Counsel
Public Counsel is the largest pro bono law firm in the nation. Founded in 1970 in Los Angeles, its 71 attorneys and 50 support staff—along with over 5,000 volunteer lawyers, law students, and legal professionals—assist more than 30,000 individuals, families, and community organizations every year. Our projects focus on the needs of those living at or near the poverty level in such areas as Education, Children’s Rights, Immigration, Veterans, Community Development, and Homelessness. The Consumer Law Project is one of Public Counsel’s original projects. From its inception it has assisted thousands of low-income homeowners, students, and consumers in resolving claims of unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentations, and a wide range of issues involving fairness in the marketplace.
Public Law Center
The Public Law Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides free legal services to low-income residents of Orange County. Annually, over 8,000 of the most vulnerable residents of Orange County, including immigrants, minorities, veterans, seniors, and children, receive services from PLC's staff and volunteers. Our work includes counseling, individual representation, community education and strategic policy advocacy and impact litigation to challenge societal injustices, and we practice in the areas of domestic violence, human trafficking, guardianship, housing, health, bankruptcy, asylum, family law, consumer fraud, immigration, and discrimination. PLC's Consumer Law Unit works on a variety of issues, including debt collection defense, identity theft, bankruptcy, student loans, auto fraud and predatory lending.
Riverside Legal Aid
Riverside Legal Aid, a dba of the Public Services Law Corporation of the Riverside County Bar Association, provides pro se litigants with legal services, education and counselling. Services are limited to low income residents of Riverside County and are provided at offices in the cities of Riverside and Indio as well as in-court services in both cities and at the courthouse in Temecula. Areas of practice include, but are not limited to Family Law, Probate, Guardianships, Conservatorships, Unlawful Detainers, Bankruptcy and civil litigation in State and Federal courts.
Santa Clara Law
The Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center at Santa Clara School of Law provides free legal services to low-income individuals who have been victimized as consumers and debtors by unfair business practices and fraud. The Community Law Center offers advice clinics twice-a-month regarding consumer-related issues. It also offers a monthly clinic regarding debtors’ rights. The advice provided during the clinics is free of charge. The Consumer Practice Area's major types of cases include: Fraud while purchasing a new or a used car; Car repossession or towing issues; Debt collection harassment; Notario or paralegal fraud; Telemarketing or door-to-door sales fraud; Identity fraud; Credit card fraud; Bankruptcy Credit reporting problems; and other miscellaneous consumer cases.
Watsonville Law Center
The Watsonville Law Center (WLC) provides free legal services to low-income individuals on California’s Central Coast. We believe that everyone benefits when the most vulnerable among us thrive, and that a holistic collaborative approach is most effective. We focus on legal problems with long-term impacts and solutions, such as workers’ rights, consumer rights, and access to employment.
Policy Advocates
Corbin & Kaiser
Corbin & Kaiser is a Sacramento-based firm serving not-for-profit, government, and cause-based organizations through government relations, coalition building, fund development, and public relations. Joint partners Samantha Corbin and Danielle Kando-Kaiser have managed national organizational expansions, procured over $700 million in funding for education and public interest programs, and have led clients and coalitions to victory in front of the legislature. We take our clients from planning to action — and success.
OUR WORK
2024 Legislative Priorities
Past Sponsored Bills
AB 1119
2023
Wicks
Removing the Last Vestiges of Debtors’ Prison
Signed by Governor
SB 1200
2022
Skinner
Reducing the Interest Rate and the Term of Post-Judgment Debt
Signed by Governor
AB 1405
2021
Wicks
Reining in Debt Settlement Companies
Signed by Governor
AB 430
2021
Grayson
Making it Easier to Establish Identity Theft in Cases of Coerced Debt
Signed by Governor
AB 832
2021
Chiu
Creating Protections from Eviction and Back Rent Debt
Signed by Governor
SB 633
2022
Limón
Expanding the Co-Signers Act
Signed by Governor
AB 390
2021
Berman
Making it Possible for Consumers to Cancel Online Subscription Services
Signed by Governor
AB 1864
2020
Limón
Creating the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation
Signed by Governor
CONTACT US
© 2020 by CLICC. All Rights Reserved.