No Charge - Free - Assistance with Civil Complaints

No-Charge (Free) Assistance with Civil Cases

The Seniors vs Crime Project Senior Sleuths assist people involved in civil disputes with contractors and other businesses or individuals who may have defrauded or otherwise taken advantage of them financially. There is no charge for the services of the Project's Senior Sleuths. Assistance is provided through information collected by Senior Sleuths working at one of the local Seniors vs Crime Project Offices throughout the state.

When requesting assistance from the Senior Sleuths at a Project Office, a person has two options.

Option 1: Senior Sleuths may be requested to intervene and represent the complainant.

In these instances, the Senior Sleuths will thoroughly research the complaint and attempt to mitigate the case with all parties involved. If you are involved in a civil situation and you request assistance, the Senior Sleuths assigned to your case will do everything possible to reach a settlement without cost to you and without public or family embarrassment. Senior Sleuths are successful in a high percentage of cases.

Option 2: The person may only be looking for coaching "assistance" through a situation. Seniors Sleuths can advise the senior on how to handle a particular matter and not get involved with anyone except the senior.

The victim is not required to sign anything to receive this type of assistance. It is just one senior talking with/advising another senior. An example would be where the senior was victim of a phone call scam originating from outside the US. No monies can usually be recovered in these cases. The Senior Sleuth would advise the senior on topics such the steps needed to contact a credit card company to dispute a charge; how to freeze their credit bureau accounts; how to request free credit reports; or the importance of changing banking account numbers. In other words, it is one senior coaching another senior thru the difficult, often emotional, steps to take to protect their financial wellbeing after a scam has taken place.

Many people initially only seek advice, then after some discussion they quickly realize the situation is more complex. They then may ask the Senior Sleuths to assist in resolving the situation (Option 1).

Victim must make the request.

The services of the Seniors vs Crime Project must be requested by the victim in the complaint. The Project cannot respond to suggestions that a third party has a problem and should be contacted. Victims may be assisted in filing their complaint by family, friends or Power of Attorneys but the victim must sign the Request for Assistance form before assistance can be rendered.

Project Office Visits

Senior Sleuths routinely conduct all business from within the confines of a Project Office. All contact between the Senior Sleuth and the complainant and others who may be involved, is conducted:

• in person, at the local Office;

• in special circumstances when in-person project office visits are not possible, in-person in the confines of a law enforcement agency, a government facility, or a senior center;

• by Project Office connected communications such as postal mail, email and/or phone;

• and, with prior approval of a Director and the Project Office Manager, by Home Office connected communications such as postal mail, email and/or phone.

Documents Pertinent to a Complaint

The complainant is asked to retain all original documents. When necessary, a complainant may be asked to either drop-off copies of complaint related documents at the local project office, or use postal mail to send copies of complaint related documents. The Seniors vs Crime Project retains only copies of relevant documents.