On Thursday, March 19, 2026 Access Justice Brooklyn President & CEO Lilia Toson testified before the New York City Council Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection Preliminary Budget Hearing to call the Council’s attention to the need for additional resources to effectively operate limited-scope programs for pro se consumer defendants in Brooklyn Civil Court.
New York City’s Civil Courts have jurisdiction over monetary claims of up to $50,000, such as credit card debt, auto loans, medical debt, student loans, and rental arrears. To assist defendants in these matters, two limited-scope legal services programs operate across the New York City Civil Court system: the Consumer Legal Advice and Resource Office (CLARO) programs, and the Volunteer Lawyer for the Day (VLFD) programs. Not-for-profit legal services organizations staff these programs in each borough, largely in partnership with law schools to increase the programs’ capacity. In Brooklyn, Access Justice Brooklyn operates both the CLARO and VLFD programs.
During her testimony, Lilia shared the following: “As many as seventy to eighty people seek assistance at Brooklyn CLARO on any given day, which is a number that has increased substantially since the pandemic. Compared to 2019, in 2025 we have handled an increase of nearly forty percent in matters for consumer defendants, relying on the same level of staff. The increase demand far exceeds the capacity of the CLARO program.”
As most consumer defendants are people with low incomes, access to private counsel represents a prohibitive expense, making the Civil Court’s pro se programs their only source of legal assistance. The CLARO and VLFD programs therefore represent crucial resources for consumers without representation, and the status of these programs in Brooklyn Civil Court illustrates that the need for assistance has outpaced the level of capacity that funding currently supports. These programs have largely maintained their level of impact through the generous support of volunteers and through the efforts of Access Justice Brooklyn’s staff to meet with as many people as possible despite time and resource constraints.
Lilia’s full testimony can be viewed below.
A copy of the written testimony is available to view and download here.
