Elder Law Newsroom

An Elderly Couple Was Charged Nearly $11,000 For Minor Home Repairs That Were Never Completed

AoA’s legal programs help to ensure that older Americans and their caregivers receive critical information in areas such as consumer protection, public benefits, resident’s rights, guardianship, and health and financial advance planning. The Older Americans Act (OAA) is one of the top funding sources for low-income senior legal services. There are approximately 1,000 OAA legal services providers nationwide, which provide over one million hours of legal assistance per year. AoA also funds 13 senior legal hotlines and six pension counseling projects. The following examples demonstrate the benefit of AoA’s legal services programs:

A 73 year-old woman was contacted by a telemarketer and invited to join a discount buyers club. She told the company she was not interested. However, when her checks began bouncing, she contacted her bank and found that an electronic transfer to the buyers club had been made. Intervention by senior legal services led to a refund of all her money plus additional expenses.

An elderly couple was charged nearly $11,000 for minor home repairs that were never completed. Legal Services assisted the couple in canceling the contract.

A legal provider assisted an elderly woman in obtaining her Social Security funds after they had been garnished from an account jointly held with her son. The son had a judgment against him and the creditor took action against the account. The elderly woman was a resident of a nursing facility and the non-payment of her bill might have caused her to be discharged.

An elderly widow was being financially exploited. The legal provider was able to cancel legal instruments that had been forged by the abuser such as a financial power of attorney and deed to the house.

An 80-year old man found himself the proposed ward under a guardianship petition. He did not believe he needed a guardian. The legal provider defended the elderly man against imposition of a guardianship by showing that the standards for granting a guardianship had not been met.

An elderly couple was threatened with eviction. The legal provider’s attorney informed them of what was required under law to evict tenants. The couple was relieved to know that they did not have to move out simply because the landlord told them they had to