{"id":2521,"date":"2021-06-04T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/?p=2521"},"modified":"2021-11-23T19:06:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T19:06:15","slug":"helping-a-client-get-back-his-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2021\/06\/04\/helping-a-client-get-back-his-wages\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping a client get back his wages"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><em>By Colin O\u2019Neil<\/em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2523\" src=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/05\/Colin-ONeil-photo-300x250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/05\/Colin-ONeil-photo-300x250.jpg 300w, https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2021\/05\/Colin-ONeil-photo.jpg 306w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At the end of my 1L year, I knew what a complaint was, had learned some civil procedure, and had some abstract ideas of the difficulties disadvantaged communities face. After participating in the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic, I&#8217;ve written an actual complaint, figured out how to apply civil procedure to a real case, and helped an actual client get the money he was entitled to from his former employer.<\/p>\n<p>In our first meeting, my client\u2014who knew little English and brought his son to translate\u2014explained that he was an immigrant from Pakistan who had worked at a gas station in Philadelphia. For the seven months he worked there, his employer paid him well below minimum wage. Worse, he was never paid at all for his final few months of work. He didn\u2019t want to sue his former boss, but didn\u2019t know what else to do.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, I didn\u2019t really know what to do either. However, my partner and I worked through the possibilities and began drafting a complaint. Writing this complaint was the first thing I did in law school that would have a real-world impact on someone\u2019s life, which was just as valuable, and scary, as it sounds.<\/p>\n<p>After filing the complaint, we heard nothing from my client\u2019s boss for months. When we finally sent him notice of our intent to file for default judgement, his attorney called us. We then began the settlement process. I went back and forth with opposing counsel, negotiating a settlement offer for my client. Months later, right before it seemed like negotiations were about to break down, my client decided to settle. Though it was less than he could have gotten if he had won at trial, he came away happy with this amount. I\u2019ll never forget when his son called to thank me for helping his father.<\/p>\n<p>Through the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic, I was able to apply what I had previously learned in the classroom to represent a client through their whole case\u2014from our first meeting in the Sheller Center all the way to settlement. Along the way, I gained the skills and confidence I\u2019ll need to continue helping clients in the future.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Colin O\u2019Neil At the end of my 1L year, I knew what a complaint was, had learned some civil procedure, and had some abstract ideas of the difficulties disadvantaged communities face. After participating in the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic, I&#8217;ve written an actual complaint, figured out how to apply civil procedure to a real &#8230; <a title=\"Helping a client get back his wages\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2021\/06\/04\/helping-a-client-get-back-his-wages\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Helping a client get back his wages\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16,21,23],"class_list":["post-2521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-immigrants-rights","tag-rights-of-low-wage-workers","tag-social-justice-lawyering-clinic"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Helping a client get back his wages - Elder Justice Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/ejc\/2021\/06\/04\/helping-a-client-get-back-his-wages\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Helping a client get back his wages - Elder Justice Consortium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Colin O\u2019Neil At the end of my 1L year, I knew what a complaint was, had learned some civil procedure, and had some abstract ideas of the difficulties disadvantaged communities face. 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