April 23, 2002
Jamaica, NY - Seniors will learn about their Medicaid eligibility, as well as how to protect themselves against predatory loans, unscrupulous home-improvement contractors, telemarketers and sweepstakes scams at a free forum at St. John's University School of Law on Friday, April 26, 2002 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the School of Law Building on the Queens campus.
"First Elder Law Day - Know Your Rights" is being sponsored by the Elder Law Clinic at St. John's University School of Law and New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's Brooklyn Regional Office. Co-sponsors of the event include the Southeast Queens Clergy for Community Empowerment, Inc., Legal Aid Society-Queens County and JASA/Queens Legal Services for the Elderly.
The half-day forum, free and open to the public, will focus on legal issues of importance to seniors and will feature speakers from the University, legal services, governmental agencies and private practice.
Topics will include:
- Medicaid eligibility
- Health care proxies and directives, living wills and powers of attorney
- Warning signs of predatory loans and home-improvement contractor fraud
- How to avoid telemarketing and sweepstakes scams
- How to prevent wrongful seizure of your social security income
- Elder abuse
- Nursing home fraud
- Benefits to which spouses may be entitled
Also as part of the day's events, the Honorable Barbara M. Clark, Assemblywoman for the 33rd Assembly District, will deliver a keynote address at 1:15 p.m.
The Elder Law Clinic at St. John's University School of Law, under the current direction of Professor Ann Goldweber, has been providing free legal representation to low-income Queens seniors since 1993 in the areas of consumer frauds, debtor-creditor law, and benefit entitlements such as Social Security Disability, Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid. The Clinic has successfully represented Queens seniors in lawsuits against predatory lenders and unscrupulous home-improvement contractors and debt-collectors; and has helped seniors obtain benefits they were wrongfully denied.
For more information, and to RSVP, please call Nancy Holihan, St. John's University School of Law, (718) 990-1946.
To arrange media coverage, please contact Jody Fisher, Director of Media Relations, at 718-990-6185.