Legal Aid’s Pro Bonos Truly Make a Difference

Mrs. Smith is a homeowner in a rent-controlled mobile home park. The park management claimed she violated the park rules by replacing the leaking roof on her trailer back in fall 2017. The park manager did not object to the roof replacement or serve any eviction notice until July 2018, after Mrs. Smith asserted her right to rent reduction and refund of past overpayments.

Mrs. Smith had also openly encouraged the other park residents to assert their own rights under the county rent control ordinance, since the park had been violating rent control limits for many years. This seemed to be the main reason the park manager decided to try to evict her. Patent litigator David Denuyl, an Associate at Covington & Burling LLP took the case as part of Legal Aid's pro bono program. With guidance from Legal Aid’s housing team, David represented Mrs. Smith at trial. The jury took less than one hour to return a unanimous verdict in favor of David’s client. Way to go!

To protect client confidentiality, all client names have been changed.