New York Legal Assistance Group — Local services in New York

N.Y.L.A.G. - From sheer laziness to professional egoism, utter negligence, ignorance and turpitude, this organization truly gave only a facade of legal representation in my case. In this case, which NYLAG accepted to represent, I was fully knowledgeable of applicable laws and case law, raised all relevant legal defenses and provided a preponderance of thoroughly documented evidence to NYLAG, but received comments such as "don't have time to perform case law research," a brush-off by NYLAG on all my case defenses without explanation, and an ultimatum that NYLAG was going to drop my case since I was asserting key civil rights and civil liberties applicable to my case defense arguments as I'd noted from day one. A NYLAG attorney assigned my case stated that he didn't have critical expertise pivotal to my case defense and stated that he had been previously unaware of multiple laws to which I cited in my legal responses. Then, the attorney supervisor at NYLAG lied to me repeatedly about how he would address my stated concerns regarding how the assigned attorney was handling my case. NYLAG's attorney supervisor would neither, as I asked, assign another attorney to my case nor seek technical expertise from a firm specializing my case issues and offering this assistance. Both attorneys said they reviewed all of my case documents yet every comment they made indicated they either hadn't or didn't comprehend them; they utterly mischaracterized rampantly in case assessment. Reporting this to NYLAG's managerial chain was a futile exercise.

NYLAG's behavior in my case was like an anti-intellectual frat boy club basking in public plaudits for noblesse oblige to the "low-income and/or indigent" in NYC while corruptly hiding selective incompetence. The tone of response was silent ridicule for expecting competent legal representation as they seemingly expected me to accept contempt, condescension and lack of support with lip service. There seemed no interdisciplinary application of law at NYLAG, such as cross referencing of multiple different areas of the law; one NYLAG specialty division addressed my case and, though critical aspects were overlooked because of that, well, the attitude seemed to be that one should not expect much for such a low paycheck (even if it came with HRA subsidy). My case was complicated and required intellectual rigor, but received substandard legal attention from NYLAG and rather engendered hostility from NYLAG attorneys (due to my education seemingly being an affront to apparent elitist discrimination of their attorneys against low-income clients' integrity and intellect), torpid coercion to yield to status quo, and in fact, dangerous potential malpractice, confirmed by report to the City Bar Justice Center. I experienced ambush by attorney teleconference with curt dismissals of key elements of a case that were inconvenient for NYLAG to defend in deference to their comfortable position vis-a-vis some government agencies 1.25 days before the next court date. A common NYLAG response was 'no time' - for research, document review, court preparation or much of anything.

NYLAG likely best services the immigrant demographic posting most of the positive reviews on Google and should market as an immigration law firm, not one that represents natural born citizens informed as to their Constitutional rights. In four months, NYLAG did nothing in court but show up and request adjournments for my case. Their attorneys, when calling me off record, constantly attempted to coerce me not to assert fundamental rights pivotal to my case defense. Their suspect efforts to distance themselves from their errors were rife. Further, no private attorney would dare make comments to a client such as NYLAG has made to me, implicitly slandering me and effectually threatening me against enforcement of my rights. Free 'services' from NYLAG came at cost for me as a natural born American citizen literate in the Constitution and federal laws; they came with a high price paid in experiencing duress and...

Thanks to NYLAG's I was denied an appeal for my disability case after another Legal Group (MFY) botched my case and I had asked NYLAG to handle my appeal, they refused to help with the appeal (even though I was having issues with my eyesight). So I was supposed to start a new case, thought everything was being taken care of since December; in spite of me signing a retainer. New York Legal Assistance Group only cares about their intake numbers. The lawyer I started out my housing case with was good, he left NYLAG in mid-case; the next lawyer refused to go after my land lord for years of overcharges & for never registering my rent control apartment (which is also a Homeland Security issue), so now what little money I get from HRA I'm being garnished of, instead of getting a settlement and my rent rolled back to the price it was when last registered. If legal groups aren't allowed to file counter-lawsuits, they should be made to disclose this fact. A private lawyer would have been able to go back 4 years of over-charges, triple that amounts (at least) and with the rollback my rent would have been affordable. NYLAG couldn't wait to get my housing case out of their hands. The 2nd lawyer was rewarded with a judges seat for NOT going after my landlord (who owns about 100 buildings/properties); instead of finishing the job and getting me SEPS, so yet another Legal Group had to step in (NMIC) to finish NYLAG's sloppy work. BTW, the lawyer who was given the judgeship didn't even have a fraction of the experience the 1st lawyer had (perhaps a Quid Pro Quo deal). Now NYLAG wants to know why I refuse to use them for my disability? I'm supposed to be getting Access-A-Ride, so they failed to understand the most basic issues involving my disabilities, that were ALL caused by Medicaid Malpractice. Legal Groups shouldn't be tax exempt if they refuse to go after landlords and other bad actors. This was a group that Preet Bharara stepped in and put his own people in after NYLAG was under investigation. This is another Legal Group that US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and NY AG Eric Schneiderman should be investigating; these lawyers take an oath of office, yet they always seem to side with the person with the most money and ignore ALL criminal acts/behaviors involved in both Medical and Housing corruption involving Medicaid, DHCR, Bronx Housing Court and other government agencies. NYLAG doesn't recognize a persons basic human rights to transportation, justice and the making sure you're getting ALL the benefits/settlements that their clients have a right to; therefore I can't recommend them. Besides all these disability cases can not be won without a Medical Expert on your side, the judges use them, and so should your lawyers. Meanwhile I've been repeatedly cheated out of benefits, and anyone who doesn't think that this is ALL political, really doesn't understand New York politics and the Machine its become, its why voters aren't voting for their own party members. Bottom-line avoid New York Legal Assistance Group, especially if you have a complicated housing or disability case; you get what...

NYLag is the reason I’m homeless at the moment. They completely humiliated me in an OSC case in front of a judge. I’m represented by Anna Belkin and her Supervisor Vania Tseng. We had a chance to ask for more time to search for another apartment. They completely misrepresented me in court by telling a Judge she “doesn’t know why we are here” after I was ILLEGALLY evicted from my home. I have reason to believe that they may have took money from the opposing party to throw the case. I have never seen a lawyer go into court and just give up. I was also lied to prior to seeing the judge. My lawyer Anna Belkin told me I would have a chance to speak to the judge knowing that the judge would not hear from me. They want to hear from the lawyer that is representing you. As soon as my lawyer stated she “doesn’t know why we are here” to the judge, the judge basically denied the order to show cause stating there was no good reason presented. The admin has told me that this is the sole reason it was denied. Furthermore, I was told by Anna and Vania a few months ago (February), if I didn’t accept an offer from the opposing party, they would no longer represent me. I have attempted to communicate this to NYLAG for some time now. They refuse to take accountability nor address the actions taken. I’m still waiting to hear from a supervisor and it’s been weeks. I’m writing this because I truly hope NYLAG does not practice law unethically with all their clients. I’m a victim of this and it is the reason I may be on the streets. The lack of compassion and disregard for this complaint is also astonishing. Johnathan Fox is defending the actions of his colleagues and I’m still waiting to hear from Shani Dasess who is supposed to oversee this all. My emails have yet to be fully addressed nor replied to. Please be very mindful when dealing with this firm. It seems as though they may be okay with unethical practices which can cost you your home. I’m still hoping they acknowledge this and rectify this before it’s...