HOW I MAKE A DIFFERENCE

How I Make a Difference

Years ago, I had a client who was about to be evicted for nonpayment of 3 months’ rent. At the last minute he was able to come up with the rent money and had me stop the eviction that was scheduled for 1 pm on that day. I was able to do it at the very last second.

Another client I worked for was also faced with eviction because of a terribly cluttered apartment. Her attorney, social worker, the client herself and I all worked together at the last minute to clear the apartment from so much clutter and put things in order. I persuaded my client to throw away some of her excess clothing and other items that she didn't need, and helped her find a storage space for some of the remaining articles.

The attorney and I took photos of the apartment for him to produce in court.

The eviction was stopped, and my client still lives there.

One client of mine had a nightmarish insurance problem. Her husband had passed away and was fully insured by Medicare and GHI. Medicare was supposed to pay 80% and automatically pass on the remaining 20% to GHI, but there was an error in Medicare's computer system, which it was either unable or unwilling to correct. Thus my client was not only grieving for her husband but also saddled with thousands of dollars of pressing medical bills. I straightened out the matter in short order, making sure that Medicare passed on the 20% of her bills to GHI and that GHI paid that amount.

A downtown client of mine was overcharged $1700 worth of long distance phone bills by her carrier, MCI. I began by calling MCI and asking for the money back. When they refused, I wrote a letter to the Attorney General of New York, which included all of the evidence of the overcharge. Several months later we received a letter from MCI agreeing to give her a credit of $1700.

This same downtown client is an author and had written a book on poetry writing several years before. She called her publisher to ask that they either put out a new edition of the book or write her a letter of release from her contract so that she might seek re-publication elsewhere. When the publisher refused to acknowledge her request, she engaged a high-priced agent to help her, and when this intermediary proved unsuccessful, she came to me. After many phone calls, faxes, and e-mails from me, the publisher finally relented and my client promptly got her release in the mail.