Complaint Review: Atlanta Legal Aid - Atlanta Georgia

I went to Atlanta Legal Aid because of my daughter.

Me and my daughter went to meet with a Ms. Monica Hood and even though I thought Ms. Hood would farely represent my daughter during her hearing for her Social Security case, I was completely and absolutely wrong.

Ms. Hood misrepresented my daughter in her hearing case and lied to us both. When we met with Ms. Hood, I thought she was very nice, she made my daughter not feel so nervous because she tends to get that way during certain situations .

My daughter has ADHD and has been dealing with is since she was 6 years old. She was diagnosed with it when she was just 9. She has been on meds for her ADHD ever since then and it has kept her grounded to where she could concentrate on her school work as well keeping her from having emotional outburst.

After talking with both me and my daughter as well as talking with us seperately, Ms. Hood gave told us about what to expect and what can or cannot happen but she also told us that if my daughter was going to college or a trade or techincal school that they would more than likely let her keep being on her disability. 

Me and my daughter had talked about her going to school and taking a few classes and such before our visit to Ms. Hood and we told her that we would talk things over and all.

So when our hearing came up in July and we met with Ms. Hood downtown at the building and while she was looking over her paperwork, I went onto tell Ms. Hood that my daughter would be going to school in the Fall to which she tried to hush me up. I was really puzzled by what she did and I asked her "Why?" but never got a answer back.

When we got the verdict of my daughter's hearing, which it was denied, I contacted Ms. Hood to let her know because I thought she would have already gotten it. She stated that she hadn't gotten it yet but when she did, she would look over it and talk with her supervisor, Ms. Eason.

The next day she called back and told me that there was nothing more that she could do since the hearing was not in our favor and told us that she was no longer on our case and that was that. 

To say I was floored would be a understatement of the decade because my daughter went onto tell me that during the entire time the two were at the hearing, Ms. Hood constantly bumped her knee against my daughter's leg, for what reason I do not know but she found it very annoying that she was doing it.

After this happened, my daughter's life has been a shambles due to the fact that she is unable to get Medicaid (we went to try and she was denied) and she is unable to get back on her meds and this has affected her greatly.

I went onto however to make a complaint which is something I had tried to do before but never ever got a call back from Ms. Eason but yesterday (1/29/2020) I called to see about making a complaint against Ms. Hood.

The receptionist was nice enough to put me through to her voice mail to which I left her a message and my number to reach me by. Once again I got no call and so the following day I called back again to which the receptionist was shocked that Ms. Eason didn't call me back cause she was good at calling folks back so once again, I was sent to her voicemail and once again, I left a message.

I ended up getting a call back at around 5:00 pm from her and when she told me who she was, I was very happy and stated to her that I didn't think that she would call me back but I was glad that she did. She went onto telling me that she had talked with Ms. Hood and wanted to know, "What was the problem?"

It was the way she said this that threw me off because her tone was very snarky and belligerent which shocked me cause this was supposed to be a professional..a LAWYER who wasn't supposed to talk with people in such a manor and I stated to her that first off that I didn't appreciate her tone and then I went onto let her know that I didn't think that Ms. Hood represented my daugher rightly and how things that were done and said were basically not said and done during the hearing. Plus the fact that I thought we were supposed to be dealing with an actual lawyer and not a paralegal who seemed to not know what she was doing anyways. 

Ms. Eason, who mind you was on speaker when we talked, basically told me that we were lying and that we were no longer Ms. Hood's clients since the case was closed.

Everyday has been a struggle for me and my daughter and often times she tells me that she feels that she's did something wrong during that hearing and constantly has made herself feel so bad over it. I would never EVER go back to Atlanta Legal Aid and I would be very leary about dealing with Ms. Hood or Ms. Eason becuase they are completely unprofessional people.