Legal Services of Eastern Missouri

‘Tangled titles’ create a cascade of legal problems for homeowners in St. Louis

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, which provides representation to lower-income individuals in housing, discrimination or other civil matters, has outgrown its current location.

The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis launched Pro Bono Matters as a repository for civil cases that legal aid organizations cannot handle for a variety of reasons.

There are almost 25,000 vacant houses, commercial buildings and land plots in St. Louis, and about 60% are privately owned. Some nuisance properties can be a blight on communities, so neighborhood associations have been trying to acquire them or compel owners to fix them.

Though the change was approved in late June, it will not take effect until July 2023. That gives court officials time to make sure the computer system can handle the traffic, and to reinforce the importance of redacting personal or sensitive information.

Legal advocates are going to court to seek benefits for Missourians who they say are being illegally shut out by a protracted application process.

Community leaders in the Baden neighborhood of north St. Louis are going to court to claim vacant houses for potential new homeowners.

Law firms across St. Louis are volunteering their services to help Legal Services of Eastern Missouri’s Neighborhood Vacancy Initiative. The initiative helps neighborhoods in north St. Louis.

The state is demanding that more than 46,000 people pay back money the state said it mistakenly overpaid them last year. Some lawmakers worry that fighting appeals will be costly to Missouri and are trying to block collection of the money.

Letters from the Department of Labor indicate it's trying to recoup money it accidently overpaid to out-of-work people.