Pulaski County Courthouse
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.