Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's staff management or ownership. A good morning. You'll find
you out with Pete the Poe Cold.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm Peter Lennon and I'm the poet Goal.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We're on the air this morning, people from the Hudson
Valley Justice Censor. That's Jason Mays and George Haddad. And
before we get to Jason and George, we're going to
go right to the public. Goal for her weekly poem
prayer incantation Gold, let it roll.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Okay, this morning, I'm going to do to be of
service And it's one out of the new book, be
the poem living Beyond Our Fears.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Your new book, Yes, my new book.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Did I say someone else's new book?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Now?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
My new book, Yes, my new book. To inspire those
who were seeking inspiration, To transform those whose choice is
wilful ignorance, To guide those in their darkest moments. To
hold dear those who need to be held, To demonstrate
patients when there seems to be none, To teach those
when there are lessons to be learned. To listen to
(01:04):
the voice of the unheard, to lead in an exact manner,
to be righteous with our cause, to be of service.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Service and justice partners, or at least cousins. And George,
I know a lot of people won't know what the
Hudson Valley Justice Center is yet, but I know you've
taken up in love in the Family Partnership Censer, which
is good news for all of the people in the
Hudson Valley. So we give us a censor what the
(01:35):
Huston Valley Justice Center is about.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Thanks for having us on. Yeah. So we're a nonprofit.
We provide free legal services for anyone regardless of immigration
status in the Hudson Valley. So we have a new lead.
I guess new at this point is a relative term.
But we've been open since twenty twenty three in the
Family Partnership Center, and we provide evictioned housing services as
well as immigration and family law services that people werout
(02:00):
Dutchess County, Ulster County, Orange County, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and
Sullivan Counties. So we have offices in Poughkeepsie at the
Family Partnership Center. We have an office in Newburgh. We
also have offices in Westchester and White Plains and Yonkers.
So we mainly do housing and eviction defense work, and
(02:20):
you know, that's kind of our bread and butter of
the type of work and the people that we're servicing
in our community. And honestly, we saw that there was
such a need in Dutchess County for this type of
service that we were, you know, Jason and our old
executive director of Virginia decided that that was one of
the places that really needed an office and a physical
presence so we could be there for the clients that
(02:42):
you know, need us the most.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, I was going to ask that because I didn't
know whether or not had you been in Duchess before
at another location or so.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We serviced Duchess through through our Newburg location. But it's
different when you have a physical location. I mean, honestly,
since we are in the Family Partnership Center, we get
so many walkins, probably more than any other office throughout
our coverage area. We get more walkins in our Poughkeepsie
office just because it's like a one stop shop, right
you go, you need services for you know, for another organization,
(03:10):
another agency that's in the Family Partnership Center, you say Hey,
everyone in there is pretty good about saying, hey, go
over to Hudson Valley just Center if you need legal
services with you know, X, Y and Z, whatever area
that you know someone might need that we cover, they'll
they'll send them up to us. And we really get
a lot of clients coming in through through just the walkins.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Have you found that there's an increase of evictions of
immigrants in the Pickkeepsie area?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So whether I don't know if there's necessarily an increase,
but we have seen the our you know, clients and
specifically undocumented of folks, especially with the new administration, be
a little more wary and a little more hesitant to
come out and you know, and and fight in eviction
because of the ramifications that could come with them, Hey,
(03:55):
showing up the court with their landlord kind of highlighting
you know, what's going on, and and you know, in
some instances Ice just being called right and people being
fearful of Ice showing up when they do show up
the court or try to fight for their rights.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Jason, you know, when we talk about housing issues, is
it mostly evictions you're talking about or are there other
Iceland mode tenant issues that come up? Can you explain
sort of the some of the issues around housing that
you guys deal with.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Sure, I mean, I think it's fair to say that
the majority of our cases are people defending against evictions,
so people who would either fallen behind and rent, or
the landlord wants to terminate their lease for whatever reason.
Sometimes the landlord wants to terminate people's leases for prohibited reasons.
So like you know, in many areas that the landlord
(04:49):
wants to decides to terminate attendant who are just declined
to renew a lease, they're entitled to do that. They
can't do that or any kind of discriminatory purpose, so
they can't, you know, get any kind of type of
person single to those folks out de terminate their tendencies.
We also help with affirmative filing, so sometimes tenants are
(05:12):
have trouble getting their language democrapairs in their properties. We
represent those kinds of people, So we really do a
pretty wide range of representation in them in housing court.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Are people afraid to you, I mean, as the other
side of the issue of landlords afraid you.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Well, I don't think so. I don't think that. I mean,
we have a cordial relationship with our opposing counsels, and
you know, they are people like anyone else. So some
of them are are difficult and some of them are
are are perfectly professional. So you know, I don't think
we have a terribly bad relationship with ourposing counsels.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Now, Jason, you've mentioned a term I wasn't familiar with.
You said, I'm sorry, it was an a affirming having
to do with evictions. Can you explain that.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
More affirmative claim? So basically, what I mean is there
are sometimes whenever whenever, the tenant is the one that
starts the action. So if a landlord is not making
repairs in the property, the tenant might have to file
an action in housing court to bring the landlord to
the end of court and try to force them to
make some repairs. We see that fairly often.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And Jason, well, the other thing I mentioned, what may
you open up to a place in a family partnership
CeNSE and how is that working out for you?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Well, we've always tried to serve the entire Hudsonds Valley,
so all seven count they said. George mentioned before we
wanted to have a presence up further north just because
we didn't have an office up there. And the Family
Partnership Building in particular was just very appealing because of
the other services that people can get there. And well,
(06:59):
as you heard George, we're it's working because we have
a lot of walking clients, people just asking, you know,
like kind of like what we do, and then it
turns out maybe we can actually help them with something.
So the presence among all of those other providers is
really something that was great. Also the fact that there's
a space there for us to do know your Rights
trainings and things like that. We can we can kind
(07:20):
of like bring groups of people in and you know,
advise a building full of tenants or or you know,
provide a presentation to you know, folks in the area.
That's really appealing to us.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, to know your rights, and that's a more recent
thing in terms of immigration. Am I right about that?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So know your rights broadly speaking, you can really we
can really do it in any area of law that
we cover, So we can do housing, know your rights, immigration,
know your rights, family, know your Rights. I think that's
where we first met, actually, Pete, was that an immigration
know your Rights that one of our directors was presenting
at at the Family Partnership Center give us a good
opportunity to meet you and have this opportunity. But yeah,
(08:00):
especially more recently, we've been seeing a higher demand for
the immigration no, you writes, just because people are unsure.
You know, they hear things on the news all the time.
They don't know what's true, what's not true. It is
you know, best advice to tell someone, Hey, hear it
from an attorney. Hear it from someone that's handling these
types of cases, so you can get the most accurate
(08:20):
type of information. So, you know, more recently we have
seen an uptick in the demand for the immigration know,
you're right.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Specifically, now I know that you're the litigation director for
Hudson Valley Justice Center. What brought you to this work?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Good question. So I started my career in Central New York. Actually,
so I started working at the Legal Services of Central
New York doing this work doing aviction defense. Ended up
in the Bronx after being up in Central New York
for about five years doing their Right to Council on
the Right to Council program, and something that spoke to
me and what eventually got me to apply for the
(08:56):
Hudson Valley Justice Center was the fact that we can
represent anyone regardless of their immigration status. I'm a first
generation American. My parents immigrated here in the eighties from Jordan.
And one thing that spoke to me was, Hey, these
people are coming in and they're struggling, just like my
parents were when they first came to this country. And
I think having good representation, good attorneys to be able
to be in their corner to help them out in
(09:19):
their times of need, like you said you in your poem,
like giving you know, a voice to the voiceless, right,
these are the opportunities that we get at organizations like these.
And what spoke to me and what drove me to
want to build a career in this type of work.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And you know, yeah, yeah, the first Georgianian that I
ever met. Okay, I mean I grew up in New
yorkisoded Gold And it's not a big Georgianian population there.
Well maybe there is, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, there's more. We have a little pocket of us
all over here. It depends where you go. Some of
us are in Patterson, you know. And you know, if
you ask my dad, I'll tell you that we're all
over the place. But you know, we're rare. We're a
rare breed compared to the other countries that are in
the Middle East.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And Jason's you have an answers Golds question about what
brought you into the work just the census work.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Uh, you know, that's a hard one for me to answer.
I don't know. I worked at a at a non
profit years ago, and I could either go into you know,
the I could become a social worker, or I could
have went to law school. I decided to go to
law school. Applied to Cuney because of their focus on
public in trust's law, and and that was actually the
only law school I applied to. If I didn't get
(10:33):
in there, I don't know what I would be doing now.
When I came out, I started working for Legal Services
of the Hudson Valley or affiliate, and I was working
with in their mental health unit. So I was in
general practice for people with super and persistent mental health issues.
And I don't know why why this kind of work
appeals to me, but it just does. I guess I
just kind of like woke up that way.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
If you're just tuning in, you're listening to finding Out
with Pete and the poet Gold and I'm the poet
gold and we're here today speaking with Jason Mays, the
executive director of Hudson Valley Justice Center, and George Haddad,
a litigation director.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
You know, this is for both the abolitation and George uh,
you know, very casually George mentioned you know, and it's
sort of an upticking people interested in immigration. I mean
the country is on fire with immigration issues, you know,
so we uh, with the change of administration, people who
(11:28):
in the country and undocuments the way if you document
it is scared. Is scared a word we can use?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, No, I think that's accurate, and I mean we
hear it from our clients daily. I mean they ask
questions about stuff they're seeing online, about misinformation that's being spread,
and it scares them. And it's not only affects them
in the immigration capacity, it affects them in fighting for
their rights in general. Right, Like, they're not going to
want to be in the public eye to come out
(11:58):
and speak out against any kind of wrong that's being
done to them because they're scared that hey, I'm going
to be deported or Ice is going to know where
I live and at that point I'll be deported. So
there's a lot of fear that's going around. Sorry, Jason,
you were going to say something.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I was just going to say exactly that. Yes, we've
seen a lot of a lot of fear. I mean,
we've seen the We've always tried to present people with
options and then sometimes had them decline to certain the
sentences because of a fear of interacting with the court system.
But we've always taken the position we've always known, you know,
(12:32):
like we're attorneys. We're asserting people's rights under the law.
We are We're not doing anything controversial here. If any
of the rights that we're asserting are you know, if
anyone has a problem with them, then they should take
that up with the legislature. We're just connecting people with
the protections that the legislature has passed. We know that
the law applies to human beings. The Zulaw protects human
(12:54):
beings in this jurisdiction. The you know, the founders knew
the word citizen and they chose not to use it.
You know, we we've always let people know that you
shouldn't be able to assault a non citizen in the
street right without without consequence. You shouldn't be able to
(13:15):
illegally iffit someone because they're not a citizen. You shouldn't
be able to, you know, exploit them in various other ways.
But we're seeing that happen because people are afraid to
go to court and it's art there, right and you know,
I understand what people are afraid.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
You know, has there been an elevation through your experience
of the court in our area where let's say ICE
is shown up when the client is coming out and
unfortunately is accosted by ice and arrested.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
So we have heard of of ice being in the area,
not necessarily at the courts, not necessarily in Dutchess County,
though we have heard rumors of them being near the
courts down in the west some of the Westchester areas,
but thankfully up in Duchess, we haven't heard of anyone
getting necessarily picked up by ice outside of the courthouse. Now,
(14:11):
that doesn't stop from the fear of that happening, right,
anytime you interact with that, you're in the public, I mean,
you are you know, your rights aren't the same as
if you're in your if you're in your home, and
you are kind of exposing yourself to a certain level
of you know, being able to you know, be picked
up no matter where you are when you are in public,
so people are still fearful of it. But thankfully we
(14:32):
haven't heard of anything necessarily in Duchess when it comes
to ice picking up at court.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
But just say you're that attention to it indicate to
me that you guys are afraid of it too.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Well, we're right, there's a lot of stuff going on
nationally that we've never seen before, so I wouldn't be
surprised if if it happens on the local level. So
it is something that we are wary of, and we
are telling you know, we understand that's part of the
reason of why some of our clients maybe don't show
up and don't necessarily tell us why they don't show
up right to a court proceeding, and they'll they'll say
(15:02):
it to us. They'll say, hey, I don't I don't
want to take the chance.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's that's why you need a lawyer to use the
word wary.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I'll let me tell you I'm scared if I could
take a minute myself. The reason I'm so interested in
this issue is I have a son who's forty four
years old. He's got developmental disabilities, and he was born
in Mexico. He's clearly Mexican's Mexican Indian, and you know
he was adopted. We adopted him when he's ten weeks old.
(15:30):
He's a full United States citizen. And I'm nervous to
sound as well like we might have lost Jason. But
the reason my son Kevin is especially vulnerable. He's gone
with developmental disabilities. So if a law enforcement person I
(15:55):
was looking to question him, you know, he looks very typical,
but you know, after about thirty seconds you catch on
and he's talking to his hands, and he doesn't have
all the language abilities for even in English. And so
I'm afraid, and I'm not wary. I'm afraid for Kevin
(16:16):
that he's going to be you know, harassed or harassed
even the wrong word. If even if he was questioned,
he would behave in a way that you could understand.
More enforcement thinks he's a wise guy, and then you're
down a road of trauma. So I like the word wary,
but I'm.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Afraid, and it's and it's a it's a real fear.
You know, my nephew as well his developmental disabilities and
often likes to walk the road, you know, by his home,
and I you know, mentioned to my family that we
have to reevaluate that. Yeah, you know, because if he stopped,
he may not he make it nervous, may not communicate,
(16:57):
you know, in a way that some and else who
may be more aggressive and also has a level of
fear that they're that they're carrying themselves, makes their reaction
to a situation like that over the time.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So I guess you're I'm thinking if I'm nervous, and
you know, I'm a middle white person with you know
who kind of affoid lawyers and all this kind of stuff.
I mean, if you're an undocumented immigrant, you're your life
has changed in every moment, I imagine because of the fear.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, the fear, and I mean there just aren't resources, right,
So you don't have the same level of opportunity to
access resources that you do when you're a citizen or
a legal permanent resident in New York or pretty much
any state in the country. You know, you can't apply
for some DSS benefits, some Departmential Service benefits, you can't
(17:52):
apply for Section eight as an undocumented immigrant. So it's
like if you go if you're down on your luck
and you're not working in this country at least, you're
kind of out of luck. And it's and it's especially
those most vulnerable in those situations, not only on document immigrants,
disabled people, senior citizens. These are all people we help
and organizations like like the Hudson Valley Justice Center do
(18:14):
assist with. I mean, these are these are the lowest
or i'm sorry, the most vulnerable in our society, and
organizations like ours help give them some voice, give them
some power back to at least assert their rights.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
We're not giving them anything that they're not entitled to
under the law at the end of the day. And
I think living in a society that does give people
who are that vulnerable the opportunity to be heard is
a society I want to live in. And those are
those are values that I think we should push for
and you know, continue to push for organizations like ours
to be able to give the services that we give.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Jason made a similar point, and Jason, you were saying that,
you know, we're cooperating with the laws they currently are
and if somebody has a problem with it, and odderly enough,
some people do have a problem with it, right, you know,
a lot of people have a thing that we should
not have the rights we have, you know, say, we
(19:14):
people who are both documents and an undocumented right, right, right, right?
Speaker 3 (19:17):
I mean just citizens. I mean there are citizens that
you know, when you had mentioned that you know, citizens
have certain right, well today that seems to be a
little bit out the window because there are citizens that
are also picked up and rights stripped away. And once
you go down that Alice in Wonder Wonderland rabbit hole there,
(19:38):
it's a little difficult to get out.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
And Jason, we're all hearing the terms I've heard all
my life and ignow it. But that the word due process.
You want to give us a sense of what it
means to have due process both in you know, your
traditional housing issues or immigration issues or anything else should
come across.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, we're seeing all of
these stories or hearing all of these stories about people
who are being deported to you know, deported whenever there's
still like an open determination as to whether they would
get citizenship or not.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I mean, the idea is that the idea of due
processes is a limit, a limitation on state power that's
exerted against a private person. So it says like to
the state, you're not supposed to use that power to
deprive a person of their liberty without without meaning your burden,
without going through the process correctly, And that seems like
(20:35):
something we should all be interested in upholding. So people,
I mean, you know, there's a there's the one person
who is here who has put in this prison in
us for by mistake, and that's a position of due process.
I mean, this person. You know, normally, if you if
you commit a crime, you break a window, you I
don't know, you harm someone something like that, you are convicted,
(20:58):
there's a sentence that's associated with a crime, and you know,
you do a certain period of time, and then once
you do that time, you you're you know, you return
to society, You've paid your debts, so to speak. This
person in prison somewhere, is there any sentence? How long
will we be there? Do we know? I mean it
just until someone changes their mind. It's it's outrageous, but
(21:19):
but that that's how generally, uh, the idea of due
process should work. I mean, in in something like the
Landloutenant context, with the idea.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
That once again, if you're just tuning in, you're listening
to finding out with Pete and the poet Gold and
I'm Poet Gold and we're here speaking today with Jason May's,
executive director of Hudson Valley Justice Center, and George hadd
A litigation director for the Center. So, Jason, you you
were mentioning and speaking about due process.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yeah, I mean due process in the landlor tenant context
would just be that if you are going to, uh,
you know, bring an action against the tenant alleging that
they've caught the nuisance or something like that, you have
to notify them in the right way. You have to
give them, you know, the facts that they're going to
be faced with. You have to notify them so that
(22:11):
they can prepare when they get to court. These kinds
of things. It's it's the idea that the person that
is basically marshaling the state power against that person, whether
it be to actually hire a marshal to walk a
person out of their property or to see you know,
seize properties he's levy their bank accounts, this kind of stuff.
You just have to provide them with, you know, notice,
(22:34):
in the right way, and you have to follow the procedure.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You've got to be fair process being fair and if
I can have another fifteen second editorial. I watched the
news very carefully, and I think there's a term we
don't here will overdue process, and that is, you know,
rich people get to drig this daircases out endlessly, and
(22:57):
when you drag things out long enough, you tend to win.
So I'm all for and so I think it's virtually
everybody in America is for a due process. I mean,
let's be fair, okay, but I don't think it's fair
when you get to overdo it. Paying well, is you know,
fifteen hundred two thousand dollars an hour to drag it
into a two thousand and twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I had a state attorney general one day say to
me when I had a case in another state, and
he said, justice delayed is justice denied?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
You know, because it's going on forever, and you know,
and it's a tactic. Someone has a deeper pocket than
you and they can do that. They can manipulate the system,
keep it in the courts, and eventually it's you know,
justice delayed is justice denied?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well?
Speaker 4 (23:45):
If I a jump in there there, this is something
that's important to think about because we you know, this
legal system that we are living within is an adversarial system,
and what that means is that the judges are impartial.
They are they're neutral, right they hear the arguments from
the parties, and that means it's up to you as
(24:05):
an individual to know whether the law provides you with
the defense in a certain situation. Some people can hire
attorneys to tell them whether the law protects them in
a certain situation, and other people can't. And if you're
one of the people who can hire the attorney, then
you can basically, in some instances convince the court to
take an action, and that would be convinced the court
(24:27):
to locks someone out of their home, convince the court
allowance sees property you can get You can essentially get
your way when you might not have if that other
person had known what their rights are. And that's the
importance of free legal services in the civil context, because
you're really making sure that you know when the legislator, legislature,
legislature passes these laws. They are often great and they
(24:49):
and it would be fantastic if those laws were asserted
as being written all the time, but without somebody to
connect people to them in the right way and at
the right time. The laws just kind of sit there
on a ship off in the book. Right, that's the
importance of simpo legal services, I think, And.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You're shaking your head in agreement with that. How do
you feel about people who simple rich people who can
drag things out? Have you ever come across satlly do
you have fears or feelings about that?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
So in our context, dragging it out, at least in
housing court is sometimes to the benefit of the tenant,
So like the longer it takes sometimes the more helpful
it is for its housing or whatever it might be.
But we do see the power imbalance. We do see
the imbalance between a landlord who has money can hire
an attorney in almost eighty five ninety percent of cases
versus a tenant who shows up on their own right.
(25:43):
Tenants don't have representation. And I mean as much as
our organization and other organizations in the area do to
try to give those services and make sure tenants are represented,
it's really not a huge number that show up to
court with an attorney. So we do see that in
that way, is that now you have a landlord's landlord
(26:03):
who has an attorney. The attorney probably has been in
that particular court a good number of years has built
a reputation. The judge knows them, right, so like they
you know, it just comes from years of interacting, right,
you build a reputation. The judge says, Oh, this person's
files their paperwork correctly and I have you know, it's
almost like, you know, I give them the benefit of
(26:25):
the doubt versus a tenant and this is their first
time interacting with them with no attorney and then just oh,
you don't have an attorney.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Maybe your case.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Wasn't good enough to have an attorney. But in a
lot of cases, that's not it. That's not it right.
It's it's that there aren't enough attorneys to service everyone, right,
And that's.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You guys who're trying to make the world fairer.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
That's what it is. It's just it's just giving people
a fair shot. And a lot of times judges and
opposing counsel, landlords attorneys love having us involved because we're
in there and if someone has a strong case, we're
going to bring that up. If someone maybe they don't
have as strong of a case, we we can sometimes
if it's in the client's ben's interest, get the case resolved, right,
and it becomes less of something that the judge will
(27:07):
have to deal with on the record and more something
that we can deal with by advising our client and
discussing possible resolution options with the with the landlord's attorney.
So and not every case becomes contentious. We try to
make it as easy as possible for everyone.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
There are people who even before the show started, might
not like you because you seem like a sort of
a nice person.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I think,
like Jason said, it's it's we're people who are just giving.
We're trying to give voices to individuals, right, We're trying
to We're trying to have them so they're heard at
the at the end of the day that they're heard,
not everyone's Some people, like Gold said, aren't gonna like
that anyways, Right, They're not going to like that. From
the start is that these voices from this other perspective
(27:57):
are being highlighted. But I think what we try to
do at the end of the day is just make
sure the most vulnerable in our society are given a
fair shake.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
But before we wrap up, can you communicate to our
listeners how they can contact you do. You have a
website all that social media information.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah, so if you want to do an intake with
our office, you could either show up to one of
our office locations or call us at nine one four
three zero nine three four nine zero. I'm sorry three
three zero eight three four nine zero sos nine one
four three zero eight three four nine zero. And our
website is HVJCT.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Hv JC is Huston Valley. Okay, pretty easy.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Well we still have some more time, so I'm going
to ask you this, because you talked about mitigating the cases.
Do you find that you're able to resolve more issues
outside of court, you know, rather than having to go
to court with the landlords. And we have about a
minute and a half.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, so you got to tell me. I'm long winded
if you give.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Me that, so put it out there.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
So, yeah, So what happens is a lot of times
we get involved when someone is in court so they
already have a court proceeding scheduled, and across the board,
about ninety percent of cases usually ninety to ninety five
percent of cases resolve before going to trial. But what
we can do is at least give the tenant, give
the court someone that can give the give advice, give
(29:25):
legal advice to the tenant about what's best in their
particular scenario, right, and if the best case scenario for
them is, hey, resolve this, then then we can usually
get to get to that point a little easier than
if a tenant is doing it on their own and
the judges. The judge usually is a handf hands off
and can't give legal advice, right, can't tell a tenant
this is what you should do in this situation. So
(29:46):
that if the scenario is, hey, best case scenario is
resolve this, we can usually get a tenant there. If
the best case scenario is, hey, we got to litigate,
that's what we can do as well. It just depends
on that. It depends what the client needs and then
the situation.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
So, George, thank you so so much. Jason, once again,
thank you for being on Finding Out with Pete and
the poet Golden. To our listeners, visit their website at
h VJC dot org. That's h VJC dot org or
you can call nine one four three oh eight thirty
four ninety. And thank you to our listeners once again
for listening to Finding Out with Pete and poet God,
we appreciate you.
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's staff management or ownership. A good morning. You'll find
you out with Pete the Poe Cold.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm Peter Lennon and I'm the poet Goal.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We're on the air this morning, people from the Hudson
Valley Justice Censor. That's Jason Mays and George Haddad. And
before we get to Jason and George, we're going to
go right to the public. Goal for her weekly poem
prayer incantation Gold, let it roll.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Okay, this morning, I'm going to do to be of
service And it's one out of the new book, be
the poem living Beyond Our Fears.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Your new book, Yes, my new book.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Did I say someone else's new book?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Now?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
My new book, Yes, my new book. To inspire those
who were seeking inspiration, To transform those whose choice is
wilful ignorance, To guide those in their darkest moments. To
hold dear those who need to be held, To demonstrate
patients when there seems to be none, To teach those
when there are lessons to be learned. To listen to
(01:04):
the voice of the unheard, to lead in an exact manner,
to be righteous with our cause, to be of service.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Service and justice partners, or at least cousins. And George,
I know a lot of people won't know what the
Hudson Valley Justice Center is yet, but I know you've
taken up in love in the Family Partnership Censer, which
is good news for all of the people in the
Hudson Valley. So we give us a censor what the
(01:35):
Huston Valley Justice Center is about.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Thanks for having us on. Yeah. So we're a nonprofit.
We provide free legal services for anyone regardless of immigration
status in the Hudson Valley. So we have a new lead.
I guess new at this point is a relative term.
But we've been open since twenty twenty three in the
Family Partnership Center, and we provide evictioned housing services as
well as immigration and family law services that people werout
(02:00):
Dutchess County, Ulster County, Orange County, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and
Sullivan Counties. So we have offices in Poughkeepsie at the
Family Partnership Center. We have an office in Newburgh. We
also have offices in Westchester and White Plains and Yonkers.
So we mainly do housing and eviction defense work, and
(02:20):
you know, that's kind of our bread and butter of
the type of work and the people that we're servicing
in our community. And honestly, we saw that there was
such a need in Dutchess County for this type of
service that we were, you know, Jason and our old
executive director of Virginia decided that that was one of
the places that really needed an office and a physical
presence so we could be there for the clients that
(02:42):
you know, need us the most.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, I was going to ask that because I didn't
know whether or not had you been in Duchess before
at another location or so.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
We serviced Duchess through through our Newburg location. But it's
different when you have a physical location. I mean, honestly,
since we are in the Family Partnership Center, we get
so many walkins, probably more than any other office throughout
our coverage area. We get more walkins in our Poughkeepsie
office just because it's like a one stop shop, right
you go, you need services for you know, for another organization,
(03:10):
another agency that's in the Family Partnership Center, you say Hey,
everyone in there is pretty good about saying, hey, go
over to Hudson Valley just Center if you need legal
services with you know, X, Y and Z, whatever area
that you know someone might need that we cover, they'll
they'll send them up to us. And we really get
a lot of clients coming in through through just the walkins.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Have you found that there's an increase of evictions of
immigrants in the Pickkeepsie area?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So whether I don't know if there's necessarily an increase,
but we have seen the our you know, clients and
specifically undocumented of folks, especially with the new administration, be
a little more wary and a little more hesitant to
come out and you know, and and fight in eviction
because of the ramifications that could come with them, Hey,
(03:55):
showing up the court with their landlord kind of highlighting
you know, what's going on, and and you know, in
some instances Ice just being called right and people being
fearful of Ice showing up when they do show up
the court or try to fight for their rights.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Jason, you know, when we talk about housing issues, is
it mostly evictions you're talking about or are there other
Iceland mode tenant issues that come up? Can you explain
sort of the some of the issues around housing that
you guys deal with.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Sure, I mean, I think it's fair to say that
the majority of our cases are people defending against evictions,
so people who would either fallen behind and rent, or
the landlord wants to terminate their lease for whatever reason.
Sometimes the landlord wants to terminate people's leases for prohibited reasons.
So like you know, in many areas that the landlord
(04:49):
wants to decides to terminate attendant who are just declined
to renew a lease, they're entitled to do that. They
can't do that or any kind of discriminatory purpose, so
they can't, you know, get any kind of type of
person single to those folks out de terminate their tendencies.
We also help with affirmative filing, so sometimes tenants are
(05:12):
have trouble getting their language democrapairs in their properties. We
represent those kinds of people, So we really do a
pretty wide range of representation in them in housing court.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Are people afraid to you, I mean, as the other
side of the issue of landlords afraid you.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Well, I don't think so. I don't think that. I mean,
we have a cordial relationship with our opposing counsels, and
you know, they are people like anyone else. So some
of them are are difficult and some of them are
are are perfectly professional. So you know, I don't think
we have a terribly bad relationship with ourposing counsels.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Now, Jason, you've mentioned a term I wasn't familiar with.
You said, I'm sorry, it was an a affirming having
to do with evictions. Can you explain that.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
More affirmative claim? So basically, what I mean is there
are sometimes whenever whenever, the tenant is the one that
starts the action. So if a landlord is not making
repairs in the property, the tenant might have to file
an action in housing court to bring the landlord to
the end of court and try to force them to
make some repairs. We see that fairly often.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And Jason, well, the other thing I mentioned, what may
you open up to a place in a family partnership
CeNSE and how is that working out for you?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Well, we've always tried to serve the entire Hudsonds Valley,
so all seven count they said. George mentioned before we
wanted to have a presence up further north just because
we didn't have an office up there. And the Family
Partnership Building in particular was just very appealing because of
the other services that people can get there. And well,
(06:59):
as you heard George, we're it's working because we have
a lot of walking clients, people just asking, you know,
like kind of like what we do, and then it
turns out maybe we can actually help them with something.
So the presence among all of those other providers is
really something that was great. Also the fact that there's
a space there for us to do know your Rights
trainings and things like that. We can we can kind
(07:20):
of like bring groups of people in and you know,
advise a building full of tenants or or you know,
provide a presentation to you know, folks in the area.
That's really appealing to us.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, to know your rights, and that's a more recent
thing in terms of immigration. Am I right about that?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So know your rights broadly speaking, you can really we
can really do it in any area of law that
we cover, So we can do housing, know your rights, immigration,
know your rights, family, know your Rights. I think that's
where we first met, actually, Pete, was that an immigration
know your Rights that one of our directors was presenting
at at the Family Partnership Center give us a good
opportunity to meet you and have this opportunity. But yeah,
(08:00):
especially more recently, we've been seeing a higher demand for
the immigration no, you writes, just because people are unsure.
You know, they hear things on the news all the time.
They don't know what's true, what's not true. It is
you know, best advice to tell someone, Hey, hear it
from an attorney. Hear it from someone that's handling these
types of cases, so you can get the most accurate
(08:20):
type of information. So, you know, more recently we have
seen an uptick in the demand for the immigration know,
you're right.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Specifically, now I know that you're the litigation director for
Hudson Valley Justice Center. What brought you to this work?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Good question. So I started my career in Central New York. Actually,
so I started working at the Legal Services of Central
New York doing this work doing aviction defense. Ended up
in the Bronx after being up in Central New York
for about five years doing their Right to Council on
the Right to Council program, and something that spoke to
me and what eventually got me to apply for the
(08:56):
Hudson Valley Justice Center was the fact that we can
represent anyone regardless of their immigration status. I'm a first
generation American. My parents immigrated here in the eighties from Jordan.
And one thing that spoke to me was, Hey, these
people are coming in and they're struggling, just like my
parents were when they first came to this country. And
I think having good representation, good attorneys to be able
to be in their corner to help them out in
(09:19):
their times of need, like you said you in your poem,
like giving you know, a voice to the voiceless, right,
these are the opportunities that we get at organizations like these.
And what spoke to me and what drove me to
want to build a career in this type of work.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
And you know, yeah, yeah, the first Georgianian that I
ever met. Okay, I mean I grew up in New
yorkisoded Gold And it's not a big Georgianian population there.
Well maybe there is, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, there's more. We have a little pocket of us
all over here. It depends where you go. Some of
us are in Patterson, you know. And you know, if
you ask my dad, I'll tell you that we're all
over the place. But you know, we're rare. We're a
rare breed compared to the other countries that are in
the Middle East.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And Jason's you have an answers Golds question about what
brought you into the work just the census work.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Uh, you know, that's a hard one for me to answer.
I don't know. I worked at a at a non
profit years ago, and I could either go into you know,
the I could become a social worker, or I could
have went to law school. I decided to go to
law school. Applied to Cuney because of their focus on
public in trust's law, and and that was actually the
only law school I applied to. If I didn't get
(10:33):
in there, I don't know what I would be doing now.
When I came out, I started working for Legal Services
of the Hudson Valley or affiliate, and I was working
with in their mental health unit. So I was in
general practice for people with super and persistent mental health issues.
And I don't know why why this kind of work
appeals to me, but it just does. I guess I
just kind of like woke up that way.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
If you're just tuning in, you're listening to finding Out
with Pete and the poet Gold and I'm the poet
gold and we're here today speaking with Jason Mays, the
executive director of Hudson Valley Justice Center, and George Haddad,
a litigation director.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
You know, this is for both the abolitation and George uh,
you know, very casually George mentioned you know, and it's
sort of an upticking people interested in immigration. I mean
the country is on fire with immigration issues, you know,
so we uh, with the change of administration, people who
(11:28):
in the country and undocuments the way if you document
it is scared. Is scared a word we can use?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, No, I think that's accurate, and I mean we
hear it from our clients daily. I mean they ask
questions about stuff they're seeing online, about misinformation that's being spread,
and it scares them. And it's not only affects them
in the immigration capacity, it affects them in fighting for
their rights in general. Right, Like, they're not going to
want to be in the public eye to come out
(11:58):
and speak out against any kind of wrong that's being
done to them because they're scared that hey, I'm going
to be deported or Ice is going to know where
I live and at that point I'll be deported. So
there's a lot of fear that's going around. Sorry, Jason,
you were going to say something.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I was just going to say exactly that. Yes, we've
seen a lot of a lot of fear. I mean,
we've seen the We've always tried to present people with
options and then sometimes had them decline to certain the
sentences because of a fear of interacting with the court system.
But we've always taken the position we've always known, you know,
(12:32):
like we're attorneys. We're asserting people's rights under the law.
We are We're not doing anything controversial here. If any
of the rights that we're asserting are you know, if
anyone has a problem with them, then they should take
that up with the legislature. We're just connecting people with
the protections that the legislature has passed. We know that
the law applies to human beings. The Zulaw protects human
(12:54):
beings in this jurisdiction. The you know, the founders knew
the word citizen and they chose not to use it.
You know, we we've always let people know that you
shouldn't be able to assault a non citizen in the
street right without without consequence. You shouldn't be able to
(13:15):
illegally iffit someone because they're not a citizen. You shouldn't
be able to, you know, exploit them in various other ways.
But we're seeing that happen because people are afraid to
go to court and it's art there, right and you know,
I understand what people are afraid.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
You know, has there been an elevation through your experience
of the court in our area where let's say ICE
is shown up when the client is coming out and
unfortunately is accosted by ice and arrested.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
So we have heard of of ice being in the area,
not necessarily at the courts, not necessarily in Dutchess County,
though we have heard rumors of them being near the
courts down in the west some of the Westchester areas,
but thankfully up in Duchess, we haven't heard of anyone
getting necessarily picked up by ice outside of the courthouse. Now,
(14:11):
that doesn't stop from the fear of that happening, right,
anytime you interact with that, you're in the public, I mean,
you are you know, your rights aren't the same as
if you're in your if you're in your home, and
you are kind of exposing yourself to a certain level
of you know, being able to you know, be picked
up no matter where you are when you are in public,
so people are still fearful of it. But thankfully we
(14:32):
haven't heard of anything necessarily in Duchess when it comes
to ice picking up at court.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
But just say you're that attention to it indicate to
me that you guys are afraid of it too.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Well, we're right, there's a lot of stuff going on
nationally that we've never seen before, so I wouldn't be
surprised if if it happens on the local level. So
it is something that we are wary of, and we
are telling you know, we understand that's part of the
reason of why some of our clients maybe don't show
up and don't necessarily tell us why they don't show
up right to a court proceeding, and they'll they'll say
(15:02):
it to us. They'll say, hey, I don't I don't
want to take the chance.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's that's why you need a lawyer to use the
word wary.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I'll let me tell you I'm scared if I could
take a minute myself. The reason I'm so interested in
this issue is I have a son who's forty four
years old. He's got developmental disabilities, and he was born
in Mexico. He's clearly Mexican's Mexican Indian, and you know
he was adopted. We adopted him when he's ten weeks old.
(15:30):
He's a full United States citizen. And I'm nervous to
sound as well like we might have lost Jason. But
the reason my son Kevin is especially vulnerable. He's gone
with developmental disabilities. So if a law enforcement person I
(15:55):
was looking to question him, you know, he looks very typical,
but you know, after about thirty seconds you catch on
and he's talking to his hands, and he doesn't have
all the language abilities for even in English. And so
I'm afraid, and I'm not wary. I'm afraid for Kevin
(16:16):
that he's going to be you know, harassed or harassed
even the wrong word. If even if he was questioned,
he would behave in a way that you could understand.
More enforcement thinks he's a wise guy, and then you're
down a road of trauma. So I like the word wary,
but I'm.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Afraid, and it's and it's a it's a real fear.
You know, my nephew as well his developmental disabilities and
often likes to walk the road, you know, by his home,
and I you know, mentioned to my family that we
have to reevaluate that. Yeah, you know, because if he stopped,
he may not he make it nervous, may not communicate,
(16:57):
you know, in a way that some and else who
may be more aggressive and also has a level of
fear that they're that they're carrying themselves, makes their reaction
to a situation like that over the time.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So I guess you're I'm thinking if I'm nervous, and
you know, I'm a middle white person with you know
who kind of affoid lawyers and all this kind of stuff.
I mean, if you're an undocumented immigrant, you're your life
has changed in every moment, I imagine because of the fear.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, the fear, and I mean there just aren't resources, right,
So you don't have the same level of opportunity to
access resources that you do when you're a citizen or
a legal permanent resident in New York or pretty much
any state in the country. You know, you can't apply
for some DSS benefits, some Departmential Service benefits, you can't
(17:52):
apply for Section eight as an undocumented immigrant. So it's
like if you go if you're down on your luck
and you're not working in this country at least, you're
kind of out of luck. And it's and it's especially
those most vulnerable in those situations, not only on document immigrants,
disabled people, senior citizens. These are all people we help
and organizations like like the Hudson Valley Justice Center do
(18:14):
assist with. I mean, these are these are the lowest
or i'm sorry, the most vulnerable in our society, and
organizations like ours help give them some voice, give them
some power back to at least assert their rights.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
We're not giving them anything that they're not entitled to
under the law at the end of the day. And
I think living in a society that does give people
who are that vulnerable the opportunity to be heard is
a society I want to live in. And those are
those are values that I think we should push for
and you know, continue to push for organizations like ours
to be able to give the services that we give.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Jason made a similar point, and Jason, you were saying that,
you know, we're cooperating with the laws they currently are
and if somebody has a problem with it, and odderly enough,
some people do have a problem with it, right, you know,
a lot of people have a thing that we should
not have the rights we have, you know, say, we
(19:14):
people who are both documents and an undocumented right, right, right, right?
Speaker 3 (19:17):
I mean just citizens. I mean there are citizens that
you know, when you had mentioned that you know, citizens
have certain right, well today that seems to be a
little bit out the window because there are citizens that
are also picked up and rights stripped away. And once
you go down that Alice in Wonder Wonderland rabbit hole there,
(19:38):
it's a little difficult to get out.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
And Jason, we're all hearing the terms I've heard all
my life and ignow it. But that the word due process.
You want to give us a sense of what it
means to have due process both in you know, your
traditional housing issues or immigration issues or anything else should
come across.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, we're seeing all of
these stories or hearing all of these stories about people
who are being deported to you know, deported whenever there's
still like an open determination as to whether they would
get citizenship or not.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
I mean, the idea is that the idea of due
processes is a limit, a limitation on state power that's
exerted against a private person. So it says like to
the state, you're not supposed to use that power to
deprive a person of their liberty without without meaning your burden,
without going through the process correctly, And that seems like
(20:35):
something we should all be interested in upholding. So people,
I mean, you know, there's a there's the one person
who is here who has put in this prison in
us for by mistake, and that's a position of due process.
I mean, this person. You know, normally, if you if
you commit a crime, you break a window, you I
don't know, you harm someone something like that, you are convicted,
(20:58):
there's a sentence that's associated with a crime, and you know,
you do a certain period of time, and then once
you do that time, you you're you know, you return
to society, You've paid your debts, so to speak. This
person in prison somewhere, is there any sentence? How long
will we be there? Do we know? I mean it
just until someone changes their mind. It's it's outrageous, but
(21:19):
but that that's how generally, uh, the idea of due
process should work. I mean, in in something like the
Landloutenant context, with the idea.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
That once again, if you're just tuning in, you're listening
to finding out with Pete and the poet Gold and
I'm Poet Gold and we're here speaking today with Jason May's,
executive director of Hudson Valley Justice Center, and George hadd
A litigation director for the Center. So, Jason, you you
were mentioning and speaking about due process.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yeah, I mean due process in the landlor tenant context
would just be that if you are going to, uh,
you know, bring an action against the tenant alleging that
they've caught the nuisance or something like that, you have
to notify them in the right way. You have to
give them, you know, the facts that they're going to
be faced with. You have to notify them so that
(22:11):
they can prepare when they get to court. These kinds
of things. It's it's the idea that the person that
is basically marshaling the state power against that person, whether
it be to actually hire a marshal to walk a
person out of their property or to see you know,
seize properties he's levy their bank accounts, this kind of stuff.
You just have to provide them with, you know, notice,
(22:34):
in the right way, and you have to follow the procedure.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You've got to be fair process being fair and if
I can have another fifteen second editorial. I watched the
news very carefully, and I think there's a term we
don't here will overdue process, and that is, you know,
rich people get to drig this daircases out endlessly, and
(22:57):
when you drag things out long enough, you tend to win.
So I'm all for and so I think it's virtually
everybody in America is for a due process. I mean,
let's be fair, okay, but I don't think it's fair
when you get to overdo it. Paying well, is you know,
fifteen hundred two thousand dollars an hour to drag it
into a two thousand and twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I had a state attorney general one day say to
me when I had a case in another state, and
he said, justice delayed is justice denied?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
You know, because it's going on forever, and you know,
and it's a tactic. Someone has a deeper pocket than
you and they can do that. They can manipulate the system,
keep it in the courts, and eventually it's you know,
justice delayed is justice denied?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well?
Speaker 4 (23:45):
If I a jump in there there, this is something
that's important to think about because we you know, this
legal system that we are living within is an adversarial system,
and what that means is that the judges are impartial.
They are they're neutral, right they hear the arguments from
the parties, and that means it's up to you as
(24:05):
an individual to know whether the law provides you with
the defense in a certain situation. Some people can hire
attorneys to tell them whether the law protects them in
a certain situation, and other people can't. And if you're
one of the people who can hire the attorney, then
you can basically, in some instances convince the court to
take an action, and that would be convinced the court
(24:27):
to locks someone out of their home, convince the court
allowance sees property you can get You can essentially get
your way when you might not have if that other
person had known what their rights are. And that's the
importance of free legal services in the civil context, because
you're really making sure that you know when the legislator, legislature,
legislature passes these laws. They are often great and they
(24:49):
and it would be fantastic if those laws were asserted
as being written all the time, but without somebody to
connect people to them in the right way and at
the right time. The laws just kind of sit there
on a ship off in the book. Right, that's the
importance of simpo legal services, I think, And.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
You're shaking your head in agreement with that. How do
you feel about people who simple rich people who can
drag things out? Have you ever come across satlly do
you have fears or feelings about that?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
So in our context, dragging it out, at least in
housing court is sometimes to the benefit of the tenant,
So like the longer it takes sometimes the more helpful
it is for its housing or whatever it might be.
But we do see the power imbalance. We do see
the imbalance between a landlord who has money can hire
an attorney in almost eighty five ninety percent of cases
versus a tenant who shows up on their own right.
(25:43):
Tenants don't have representation. And I mean as much as
our organization and other organizations in the area do to
try to give those services and make sure tenants are represented,
it's really not a huge number that show up to
court with an attorney. So we do see that in
that way, is that now you have a landlord's landlord
(26:03):
who has an attorney. The attorney probably has been in
that particular court a good number of years has built
a reputation. The judge knows them, right, so like they
you know, it just comes from years of interacting, right,
you build a reputation. The judge says, Oh, this person's
files their paperwork correctly and I have you know, it's
almost like, you know, I give them the benefit of
(26:25):
the doubt versus a tenant and this is their first
time interacting with them with no attorney and then just oh,
you don't have an attorney.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Maybe your case.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Wasn't good enough to have an attorney. But in a
lot of cases, that's not it. That's not it right.
It's it's that there aren't enough attorneys to service everyone, right,
And that's.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
You guys who're trying to make the world fairer.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
That's what it is. It's just it's just giving people
a fair shot. And a lot of times judges and
opposing counsel, landlords attorneys love having us involved because we're
in there and if someone has a strong case, we're
going to bring that up. If someone maybe they don't
have as strong of a case, we we can sometimes
if it's in the client's ben's interest, get the case resolved, right,
and it becomes less of something that the judge will
(27:07):
have to deal with on the record and more something
that we can deal with by advising our client and
discussing possible resolution options with the with the landlord's attorney.
So and not every case becomes contentious. We try to
make it as easy as possible for everyone.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
There are people who even before the show started, might
not like you because you seem like a sort of
a nice person.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I think,
like Jason said, it's it's we're people who are just giving.
We're trying to give voices to individuals, right, We're trying
to We're trying to have them so they're heard at
the at the end of the day that they're heard,
not everyone's Some people, like Gold said, aren't gonna like
that anyways, Right, They're not going to like that. From
the start is that these voices from this other perspective
(27:57):
are being highlighted. But I think what we try to
do at the end of the day is just make
sure the most vulnerable in our society are given a
fair shake.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
But before we wrap up, can you communicate to our
listeners how they can contact you do. You have a
website all that social media information.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah, so if you want to do an intake with
our office, you could either show up to one of
our office locations or call us at nine one four
three zero nine three four nine zero. I'm sorry three
three zero eight three four nine zero sos nine one
four three zero eight three four nine zero. And our
website is HVJCT.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Hv JC is Huston Valley. Okay, pretty easy.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Well we still have some more time, so I'm going
to ask you this, because you talked about mitigating the cases.
Do you find that you're able to resolve more issues
outside of court, you know, rather than having to go
to court with the landlords. And we have about a
minute and a half.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah, so you got to tell me. I'm long winded
if you give.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Me that, so put it out there.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
So, yeah, So what happens is a lot of times
we get involved when someone is in court so they
already have a court proceeding scheduled, and across the board,
about ninety percent of cases usually ninety to ninety five
percent of cases resolve before going to trial. But what
we can do is at least give the tenant, give
the court someone that can give the give advice, give
(29:25):
legal advice to the tenant about what's best in their
particular scenario, right, and if the best case scenario for
them is, hey, resolve this, then then we can usually
get to get to that point a little easier than
if a tenant is doing it on their own and
the judges. The judge usually is a handf hands off
and can't give legal advice, right, can't tell a tenant
this is what you should do in this situation. So
(29:46):
that if the scenario is, hey, best case scenario is
resolve this, we can usually get a tenant there. If
the best case scenario is, hey, we got to litigate,
that's what we can do as well. It just depends
on that. It depends what the client needs and then
the situation.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
So, George, thank you so so much. Jason, once again,
thank you for being on Finding Out with Pete and
the poet Golden. To our listeners, visit their website at
h VJC dot org. That's h VJC dot org or
you can call nine one four three oh eight thirty
four ninety. And thank you to our listeners once again
for listening to Finding Out with Pete and poet God,
we appreciate you.
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