Personal Representation to Ensure Justice: Lukas Boehning, Jim Dorsey, Rachel Dougherty, Leah Flygare and Christian Hokans

SECURING HOUSING STABILITY

An eviction record can prevent individuals and their families from finding safe and affordable housing for many years. This past year, Fredrikson lawyers worked with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid to help several people clear old evictions from their records so that they could qualify for better housing. These individuals had evictions on their record that were often over a decade old. The evictions resulted from varied circumstances including an unexpected death in the family, stolen rent checks, lost jobs, medical problems and more. Lukas Boehning, Jim Dorsey, Rachel Dougherty, Leah Flygare and Christian Hokans wrote and argued expungement motions on behalf of a number of these individuals. Once a judge granted the expungement motions for their clients, the lawyers contacted the various credit reporting and tenant screening agencies to request that they remove the old records from their databases. With the evictions off their records, the clients were able to seek housing in new neighborhoods and housing developments that would have previously denied their applications. After receiving a successful expungement order, one client who had previously been unable to find housing for herself and her grandson because of an old eviction record wrote the following note to her Fredrikson lawyer:

“Oh my goodness! Thank you so so very much. I am speechless and so very happy right now and that is all due to you and your hard work.”

Another client, a single mother of three children, wrote:

“Thank you so much for all you and your team have done. This is a fresh start for me and my family.”

Leah Flygare

Rachel Dougherty

Christian Hokans

Lukas Boehning

Jim Dorsey