Justice Returned: Balancing the Scales
When you receive benefits from the Social Security Administration, a small change in income can throw your entire benefit amount in jeopardy – even if it clearly shouldn’t. Our client is a forty-year-old man working in non-profits, who came to us after the SSA improperly counted a severance payment from a previous employer as income….
Justice Moved: Helping Clients Get Settled
Our 28-year-old client had no income, and had fallen behind on his rent. He believed he was eligible for Social Security disability benefits and was financially struggling while the Social Security Administration processed his claim. By the time he sought our help, his landlord had filed a lawsuit seeking over $12,000 in unpaid rent and…
Justice Delivered: Neither Snow, Nor Heat, Nor DOC Regulations Stops Hearts on a Wire Newsletters
We believe in the Postman’s Creed of tireless service without interruption. So much so that we once again offered our assistance when the local group Hearts on a Wire was having difficulties with their newsletters. Getting mail to incarcerated recipients is always challenging, but state policy changes made it especially difficult for Hearts on a…
Justice Thrifted: Philly AIDS Thrift Distributes $298,000 from selling donated goods
Last night, Philly AIDS Thrift, surrounded by beneficiary organizations, friends and admirers, distributed 26 checks to help the fight against HIV and AIDS. Since opening in 2005, Philly AIDS Thrift has raised and distributed over two and a half million dollars from used clothes and books. This year’s round of special grants comes to nearly…
Justice CDR’ed: Proposed SSA Rules Puts Disabled People Living with HIV At Risk
The Social Security Administration has proposed new rules requiring people receiving Social Security disability benefits (such as SSDI or SSI) to undergo more frequent Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs). People who show medical improvement in their ability to work during a CDR risk termination of their benefits. These proposed rules have been presented without convincing evidence…
Justice Home Health Care Aided: Who you gonna call?
Sometimes, all it takes for our attorneys to settle a problem is getting on the phone. Usually this is because our client has already put in the time fighting for their care. One such case involved a woman, receiving both Medicare and Medicaid benefits, who was having problems with her home healthcare waiver. Her medical…
Justice Remembered: A Day of Service for MLK Day
Today as we celebrate what would have been the 91st birthday of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, our thoughts turn to the question he asked so eloquently.In 1957 at Dexter Ave Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, he said “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’”For more than thirty-one…
Justice Rounded-Up: ‘Change’ we can believe in
Our friends at the Mariposa Food Co-Op commit to sharing the wealth by offering their customers the option of “rounding-up” their purchases to the nearest dollar amount and donating the extra change to a charitable cause. The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania is grateful to have been selected as December’s Round-Up organization by Mariposa’s staff-led…
Justice Recovered: Vet avoids two evictions in three months
The 60-year-old veteran was frantic when he recently contacted us. He was three months behind on rent and about to be evicted. He had represented himself when his landlord had taken him to court and he signed a repayment plan. That didn’t go so well. He didn’t keep up with the repayment plan because he…
Justice Recorded: Man with no name gets legal identity
Back when he was a teenager, the now 27-year-old man was shocked when he found out he had no first name, legally speaking. He and his mother had ordered a copy of his birth certificate so he could get legal identification. To their surprise it came back with his name as “Unrecorded” and his mother’s…