[NEWS] Legal plight of the poor is focus of Pa. Senate hearing

A Philadelphia family of five lived without a working toilet for a month after the landlord refused to fix it.

When the family withheld the rent - which is legal - the landlord locked them out.

Because they didn't have an attorney, the family was never able to get back into the apartment.

That was one of dozens of stories conveyed at a Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee public hearing at the Philadelphia Bar Association in Center City on Thursday on the importance of civil legal help for the poor.