News

STASH’S PIZZA OWNER CONVICTED OF FORCED LABOR CHARGES AFTER YEARS OF PHYSICAL VIOLENCE AND IMMIGRATION THREATS AGAINST UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT WORKERS  BOSTON, MA – In federal court today, a jury convicted Stash’s Pizza owner Steve Papantoniadis of three counts of forced labor and three counts of…

Preliminary approval has been granted in the class action lawsuit against SafeRent Solutions co-counseled by GBLS, Cohen Milstein, and National Consumer Law Center on behalf of Massachusetts housing voucher recipients. The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts has allowed a $2.275 million settlement…

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services announced a settlement has been reached in the class action lawsuit Marsters v. Healey brought by GBLS, the Center for Public Representation, Justice in Aging, and the law firm Foley Hoag LLP on behalf of older adults, people with serious mental…

Righting the wrongs. On February 14, 2024, the GBLS CORI & Re-entry Project scored a huge win in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC's ruling stops the Commissioner of Probation from treating juvenile court youthful offender records as adult records, a practice which was giving…

The Pioneer Public Interest Law Center and Greater Boston Legal Services filed an action with Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) to enjoin the City of Springfield from foreclosing on a home worth about $230,000 because of a $22,000 unpaid tax bill without returning the more than $200,000…

Three former employees of Sichuan Taste in Malden, represented by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and the Asian Outreach Center (AOC) at GBLS, filed a lawsuit against the restaurant for wage theft and retaliation in the United States District Court for the District of…

GBLS and Ropes & Gray sued the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) about problems in the EA family shelter program. We negotiated for more than 2 years. We finally have a proposed settlement agreement. The court has to decide whether to approve the settlement. The court will hold…

Mass Health: Starting April 1, 2023, you may need to take action to keep MassHealth coverage. The protection from termination due to the public health emergency is ending. MassHealth members should make sure that MassHealth has their most up to date address, phone number, and email so that they do…

Long waits on shelter hotlines are putting people in danger: “'I have had clients who went back to their abusers because they weren't able to access a shelter.' Liz Alfred, Greater Boston Legal Services Attorney." Please click here to read the full article.

"Every year a child spends in a high-opportunity neighborhood increases the likelihood that they attend college and boosts their lifetime earnings . . . . Living in the midst of poverty hurts people’s emotional and behavioral health and reduces the chances for upward mobility. Lauren Song, a…