The Legal Aid Society, as most of us
know it, is actually a national
franchise and government agency known
as The Legal Services Corporation at
WWW.LSC.GOV

I don't know how well Legal Aid has
fared in YOUR life, but it has totally
sucked in mine. For the purpose of
this Blog, a proverbial raking over
the coals is long overdue with this
phoney Monkey Squad because it ranks
right up there with the other
"Storefront" operations who brag
much, and do nothing when it comes
to Veterans.

I came sliding out of VA Critical
Care aftera 2-month stay and
life-threatening surgery. I went
from a $35,000 a year job at GE
down to $300 a month plus food
stamps from Welfare, all in the
blink of an eye. I have been disabled
since 1991, and I am just now making
a decent enough income on SSD
to barely get by, making less than
$15K per year. The VA has yet to
deliver my SSD benefits even though
I hold a DA 664 Form designating
me as eligible for VA compensation
dated back to 1972.

So who is better to talk about
the Legal Aid Society than yours
truly ????

News Flash: With the extremes of
personal ordeal that I have
been put through, I have yet to
come across a single need in my
life since 1991 that allowed me
to "qualify" for the services and
assistance of the Legal Aid Society !!

This included Bankruptcy by
reason of sudden disability by
which I was forced to represent
myself; Social Security hearings
and appeals which I was forced
to represent myself; all emergency
VA SCC filings which I was
forced to represent myself;
a housing eviction that I endured
based upon "mistaken identity"
which I was forced to represent
myself [ I eventually got this
cleared on appeal]; and various
civil proceedings whereby insurance
companies failed to cover my
disability-credit card insurances
which I had paid upon to protect
my accounts for years and years
[ which I was forced to represent
myself ].

Now you might be asking yourself
"How can this possibly be, and
what the hell is the Legal Aid
Society doing exactly if it
isn't helping a person in need
like me ??" I was curious about
the same thing.

No matter how many times I went
to this place, there was always,
but always, but always, but
always some kind of an excuse
why nobody at Legal Aid could
do a single thing to help me or
provide a lawyer to me.

Now their newest excuse is that
I am no longer "income eligible"
for them. So let's talk about
that. Their income cutoff for
a single person is $11,900 per
year, and that is GROSS and not
NET !! If you question these college
Stooges (Larry, Moe, and Curly)
to ask them how it is that they
rationalize a surgical patient is
supposed to eat, have housing, pay
utilities, bus, laundry, and do
a few VA pharmacies all on a
paycheck that leaves next to no
disposable income whatsoever that
is NET ----- and STILL be able to
pay a $2,000 retainer plus $150
an hour plus travel expenses for a
licensed lawyer for representation
----- all you will get in response
from them is 3 full minutes of
dead air just before the crickets
start to chirp !! [peep,peep]

Even $15K per year on disability
benefits is insufficient for the
average household to pay for
attorney services as they are
currently priced.

Furthermore, they do not staff
any lawyers who practice VA law.
"Get OUT", I said. Even though
veterans benefits were clearly
marked on their promotional
brochures that they handed out to
the entire public universe, they
were only talking about Social Security benefits and unemployment for Veterans.

They also have a fake and phoney
"Intake" system that most people
in need are able to defeat. Before
you can be accepted as a case at
Legal Aid, you are required to
undergo Intake or a question &
answer list by a law clerk to see
if you can survive the EXCUSES
which are routinely published by
Legal Aid on any given day. The
truth about Legal Aid all lies
within their "excuses".

Here in Albany, NY, the phoney
Intake goes something like this:

** You can only do Intake on
one certain day of the week,
and you can only call one
certain phone number to do
it, and the one certain number
can only be called exactly
and precisely at 9:00am on
the designated day.

** When you call the certain
phone number, it is
consistently and continuously
busy with a phoney recording
attached to it that says
"All circuits are busy" for
the entire building.

** By 9:15am, and with your
fingers raw to the bone from
repeatedly and continuously
punch-dialing to get through,
"Sorry" you have now called
too late and Intake is now
CLOSED !!! See you next week.

** Doing this for 6 months
straight, the routine never
changes, and the New York
Attorney Generals Office
refuses to investigate the
place.

So who is getting served by the
Legal Aid Society exactly?? Frankly,
short of foreign immigrants and
addiction bums in the Homeless
Shelters, I cannot say to you for
sure because here in Albany, NY,
I have yet to meet a single disabled
person or a single Veteran who has
ever been able to get Legal Aid
Society to take their cases.

If you go into the main headquarters
website at WWW.LSC.GOV , there
are glimmers of the very problem
that I am talking about that peeks
through.

The website shows that Legal Aid
is all about THEM and the lawyers
that work there. On their Home
Page they are whining about the
extreme "debt" that Legal Aid
lawyers incur as they pass through
Law School, so the Legal Aid
Headquarters has now set up a
"debt-relief" program for their
own attorney graduates. ( HUH ??? )
Give me a B-R-E-A-K !!!


There is almost always the
proverbial "token" foreign
immigrant case of the day who
always gets a photo-op at their
Home Page too. It is virtually
NEVER Joe Veteran who just
received his quarter million
in back payments at the nearest
VA who spent a lifetime ripping
the guy off.

And in finally, in the past
2 years there was, in fact,
a real and true legal challenge
put up against the Legal Aid
Society from New York State by
some poor soul who probably
took out 3 mortgages on his
house to pay for the case, called
Dobbins. The Legal
Services Corporation had the
living audacity to openly BRAG
on the Home Page when Dobbins
went down in defeat by a New
York Appeals court, "applauding"
the judges ruling to "uphold"
the Legal Aid Society's "right"
to serve clients by gross income
instead of net.

Tell me, can YOU afford an
attorney on retainer??

Let me tell all of you once
and for all, that the Legal Aid
Society is a national fraud
scheme no less than many
Veterans groups are. It's a
sham, a boondoggle, a waste of
time and money, a fake and
phoney lawyer storefront to
make a small group of Do-Nothing
lawyers give off the phoney
"appearance" that they are
somehow charitable, when the
truth is that they do nothing
for the masses other than to
sabotage public legal rights
and the rights of the poor !!

Shutting down Legal Aid TOMORROW
should be the national priority
of Veterans everywhere for the
phoney fraud scheme that they are.
By all indications, they appear
to be a part of the great VA
murder-factory that I have so ably
described in my other Blogs
elsewhere on this FORUM page.

This Legal Services Corporation
receives funding from the
federal government to operate
and is controlled by a federal
statute in the United States Code.
And yet, none of us are receiving
any actual attornies to do court
cases for our needs. Go figure !!

I have also found out here
in Albany, that because of the
fake and phoney false advertising
that Legal Aid is allowed to
put out to the public, not unlike
the false advertising by the DAV,
that other lawyers who are NOT
connected with Legal Aid are
walking around with the delusional
idea that we Veterans have no
real lawyer crisis going on
because Legal Aid Society is
taking care of everything for us.
Therefore, other lawyers are NOT
pursuing the practice of VA Law
because of the fallout from the
false advertising which is put
out by the Legal Aid Society !!!

Shut this Monkey Squad down for
the malpracticed and incompetent
pile of CRAP that it is !! I'll
see you at the Veterans Picket
Line !!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: McClellanVet,