[sachingulaya]

The business pitch is usually "delay evictions now". The cold caller will get a list of properties that have recently gone into foreclosure. They call and offer to delay your eviction by 3-5 months as long as you pay them $400/month. Then they have paralegals file paperwork with the courts to contest the eviction. Basically they're using due process to delay being evicted and instead of paying their landlord they're paying the cold caller. I first saw this scam being run by a group of former drug dealers.

I would complain to the state bar about your legal clinic behaving unethically. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[sandworm101]

That's not a legal clinic. That's a law firm or, i suspect, a referral service (a clearing house) that farms cases out to cutthroats. Legal clinics don't take fees. Clients don't pay and cash settlements almost never happen. Clinics are generally staffed by law students. Complain away. Every local bar promotes clinics as a means of serving indigent communities. None would consider the assertion of a client's right to a jury trial as any sort of wrongdoing.

http://hls.harvard.edu/dept/clinical/clinics/housing-law-cli...

"The bulk of the clinic’s work consists of litigation in the Boston Housing Court, defending evictions and prosecuting affirmative cases to improve housing conditions and to prevent utilities from being shut off."

And in california:

http://www.calbar.ca.gov/AboutUs/CenteronAccesstoJustice.asp...

http://one-justice.org/