Immigrant Justice - Philadelphia Forum September 2001

Immigrant Justice
in the Consumer Marketplace

		Philadelphia Forum (September 2001)
		"I really learned a lot and I feel helpful" -- "very interesting" - these were some of the comments about NCLC's second workshop for immigrant advocates in Philadelphia. The all-day workshop was held on Friday September 28th at the Friends Center (thanks again to American Friends Service Committee for the use of their space), and was co-sponsored by AFSC, the Language Access Project of Community Legal Services, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and the Southeast Regional Immigration and Citizenship Coalition.
				Ms. Goodell discussed types of predatory lending, warning signs of a predatory loan, what immigrant advocates could do to help, and when advocates should refer clients to CLS. After lunch, Chi Chi Wu of NCLC gave presentations on debt collection harassment and credit reports. Participants learned some simple but powerful techniques to help clients stop collection harassment and clean up a credit report.
		As with the first NCLC event in Philadelphia, the workshop was attended by a wide range of community-based and legal services organizations, social service providers, and government agencies. The workshop kicked off with a presentation by John Abel, a Senior Deputy Attorney General in the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office. Mr. Abel talked about immigration consultant fraud and general Pennsylvania consumer protection law. A lively discussion ensued on how to best combat consultant fraud, with participants expressing an interest in working on this issue after the workshop. Next, Beth Goodell of Community Legal Services gave a presentation on high cost and predatory lending.
				The audience was quizzed about what they had learned, and the group scored 100%!! The next NCLC workshop in Philadelphia will be held in January 2002, and will primarily designed for attorneys who represent (or want to represent) immigrants with consumer problems. For more information about this next workshop, please contact Chi Chi Wu at cwu@nclc.org or check this Web page again in the coming months.