Legal Briefs: News From Around NH

NH Legal Assistance wins $425k fair housing grant

NH Legal Assistance has received a two-year, $425,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to support its work in working to address Fair Housing Act violations

In announcing the grant, HUD said the funding will help NHLA to conduct investigations, test and identify discrimination in the rental and sales markets and work to prevent or eliminate discriminatory housing practices.

Farley joins Shaheen & Gordon

Tess Farley

Shaheen & Gordon has announced the addition of attorney Teresa Farley. She will work with clients from the firm’s offices in Dover, NH, and Portland, Maine.

Farley’s practice focuses on divorce and family law, helping clients navigate these complex and emotional matters. She previously was a staff attorney at a nonprofit legal organization providing advocacy and services to low-income individuals in Maine. Farley is an advocate of reproductive freedom and co-founded the Reproductive Freedom Fund of NH.

AG seeks volunteers or its consumer protection hotline

The NH Department of Justice office is accepting applications for volunteers to work as consumer affairs specialists in the Consumer Protection Bureau and Antitrust Bureau.

The Specialists work with attorneys and support staff to respond to calls on the consumer protection hotline. They have been a part of the CPAB’s efforts for many years and are vital to the department’s mission to enforce state consumer protection laws and provide callers with basic information their rights and options as New Hampshire Consumers.

Volunteers will be asked to commit to four to six hours per week for a minimum of one year.

For more information, call 603-271-3641 or visit the Department of Justice website.

New Hampshire 911 earns reaccreditation for dispatch excellence

The NH Department of Safety’s Division of Emergency Services and Communications has been recognized by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch as an Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE) for emergency medical dispatching for the sixth time in the division’s history.

In 2022, the Division of Emergency Services and Communications answered 468,809 calls for emergencies all over the State of New Hampshire, of which 98.83 percent were answered within the first 10 seconds of dialing, officials said.

NH gets funding to promote equitable jobless aid access

To help identify and address barriers workers face regarding access to state unemployment insurance benefits, the U.S. Department of Labor has awarded New Hampshire an equity grant of over $2.1 million that is aimed at enabling the state to expand outreach, promote awareness, improve technology, provide translation services, reallocate staffing and address disadvantaged communities’ other needs.

Funded by the American Rescue Plan Act and administered by the department’s Employment and Training Administration, the grants will allow the state to implement projects that seek to remove barriers related to race, age, ethnicity, language proficiency, disability status, geographic location or other systemic issues that make it difficult for people to access unemployment insurance benefits.