LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - Civil tension continues between Legal Aid of Arkansas, Inc., and the Arkansas Department of Commerce Division of Workforce Services (DWS), with a lawsuit filed on Feb. 18 from the former against the latter in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County.
Legal Aid is a nonprofit corporation based in Jonesboro offering free civil legal services to low-income people.
According to the complaint, Legal Aid's gripe is that DWS has been negligent in helping to disburse much-needed Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) to Arkansans out of work due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The acts of negligence allegedly include ignoring two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, wrongful denials of benefits, applications that go unanswered for months, months-long appeals processing delays, unsubstantiated accusations of unemployment fraud or overpaid benefits and vague application procedures.
Legal Aid says DWS has ignored the plaintiff's efforts to help remedy the PUA disbursement process; the defendant has ignored records requests and questions regarding anticipated production date for unemployment benefits.
The plaintiff is suing DWS for three counts of violation of FOIA in failure to provide documents, and asks the court to demand production of the information requested.
Legal Aid is representing itself.