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Civil Rights

Building and collecting evidence for civil rights matters takes patience, tenacity and creativity. Those denied access to housing, jobs and other basic needs or endeavors, such as dining at a coffee shop, because of their protected class are entitled to pursue legal claims.

PII has applied its unflinching commitment to discovering the truth to assist civil rights attorneys; public interest groups, including Public Counsel; Housing Rights organizations; the U.S. Department of Justice; the ACLU; and many others by interviewing witnesses about sensitive subjects and collecting relevant declarations, documents and public records.

PII has assisted attorneys with such litigation for much of its 40+ year history, interviewing witnesses about sensitive subjects and collecting relevant declarations, documents and public records. In numerous cases, evidence gathered by PII contributed to large judgments or significant settlements for the victims.

Case in Point

Owners of 10 apartment buildings in the Lancaster/Palmdale area of Southern California were accused of refusing to rent to African Americans and Latinos. PII investigators fanned out across the area to interview current and former tenants and to collect declarations about their experiences and those of their current or former neighbors.

Case in Point

The former owner of the L.A. Clippers basketball team, Donald Sterling, was sued for housing discrimination by private attorneys and, later, by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) . Sterling owned numerous apartment buildings in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. PII worked with the attorneys, interviewing tenants, applicants and former apartment managers, and collected evidence of a discriminatory pattern of favoritism toward Korean tenants over African-American and Latinos. The litigation resolved in federal court in 2009 with Sterling paying $2.75 million to settle the case, the largest settlement ever obtained by DOJ in an apartment rental housing discrimination case at that time.

Case in Point

In 2011, groundbreaking litigation was filed against the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense by a group of 17 military veterans alleging they were sexually assaulted while on active duty. PII played a central role in assisting plaintiffs’ lawyers in gathering evidence and documenting incidents of sexual assault in the Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. The firm conducted interviews across the U.S. with servicewomen and men about these sensitive, personal and difficult traumas, obtaining their statements and their cooperation in proceeding with this lawsuit. This case was profiled in the documentary, The Invisible War.