As the only national legal organization focused on advancing equity and protecting the rights of low-income older adults, we are uniquely positioned to drive change through the courts. Our attorneys have a deep understanding of the intricacies of the complex health care and economic security programs that low-income older adults rely on and know when barriers to services violate their rights.
When developing litigation, we partner with advocates on the ground who help us identify and monitor serious systemic issues that impact groups of low-income older adults. We then partner with those on-the-ground advocates and our pro-bono partners from top law firms across the country to file and win cases that bring justice to large groups of plaintiffs.
Throughout our more than 50 year history we have litigated landmark cases that provide sweeping relief to low-income older adults across the country, leading to the return of billions of dollars worth of vital benefits.
Through an aggressive dismantling of the agency, the Social Security Administration and DOGE are preventing older adults and people with disabilities from accessing their benefits.
Maryland has not provided sufficient oversight of nursing facilities, leading to violations of the rights and care of residents, particularly those with mobility-related disabilities.
Massachusetts has failed to provide community residential services and supports for thousands of people with disabilities, focing them to instead live in segregated nursing facilities.
In November 2020, the Trump Administration issued a rule requiring states to trim their Medicaid rolls, causing hundreds of thousands of people to lose access to critical Medicaid benefits.
The Social Security Administration wrongfully reduced and discontinued SSI benefits for thousands of people during the pandemic while the agency’s offices were closed, leaving the plaintiffs with no way to engage with the agency to get their benefits reinstated.
On January 28, 2026, Justice in Aging, in partnership with Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, filed an amicus curiae brief in Vazquez Rodriguez v. Bostock before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief was joined by Northwest Health Law Advocates, and the National Immigration Law Center. In the underlying lawsuit, an older adult detained immigrant challenged their indefinite detention under harsh conditions. JIA’s brief highlighted for the court the uniquely harmful impact that harsh conditions of confinement have on the health and well-being on older people held in immigration detention.
On October 24, 2025, Justice in Aging, in partnership with the AARP Foundation, Dignity Alliance Massachusetts, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and National Consumer Law Center filed an amicus brief in Ryan v. Mary Ann Morse Healthcare Corp., a case before the Supreme Judicial Court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The lawsuit pertains to “junk fees” charged by assisted living residences. The amicus focused on how the fees charged by the assisted living residence in this case are junk fees, which are prohibited by the Massachusetts Security Deposit Statute. These fees require older adults to pay more upon admission without receiving anything in return, and are collected at a time when residents are in a vulnerable position and at a significant bargaining disadvantage.
Justice in Aging partnered with civil rights law firm Fox & Robertson to file an amicus brief on behalf of Justice in Aging, the Center for Medicare Advocacy, the Center for Public Representation, Disability Law United, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, and the National Health Law Program in a federal lawsuit in New Hampshire to ensure that recipients of Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) receive the care they need to live safely in their communities. In this class-action case, HCBS program participants argue that the state’s maladministration of its HCBS program causes widespread instances of people going without essential community-based care, both harming them directly and causing an increased risk that they will be subjected to institutionalization in a nursing facility.
