Geoff R Casavant, PC

I have a client who needed to break her lease early so she could return home on short notice to aid her ailing grandmother. I negotiated an early termination to the lease, on fairly generous terms.

My client has already left town, dropping off her keys and the payment to the landlord with me. The landlord's manager sent me an email saying after consulting with their "corporate attorney," (a) she would not perform a walk-through until the end of the 60-day notice next month; and (b) while she would be courteous and my client could be present at the walk-through, I could not.

It is almost as though the manager sat and thought to herself, "what course of action could I take that would be as deliberately inconvenient to the tenant as possible?"

I sent her a reply email, helpfully pointing out that if the landlord accepted possession now, they could probably have a new tenant in by the end of the month, and they would still get to keep my client's prepaid rent for July. Perhaps pure greed will work where compassion fails.

I had a meeting yesterday with a new client, who brought her daughter along. I will not discuss the details of the case here, except to say that her disabled son is turning eighteen in a few months, so she is seeking a guardianship so she might direct his continuing medical care.

But what truly impressed me was her daughter, who has been helping with her younger brother's care all his life. When I asked the daughter for her email address, she said "Doctor" followed by 4 digits, then the domain name. When I inquired further, she said that was the year she would be completely finished with medical school and residency, and finally be an M.D.

That, my friends, is what believing in yourself truly looks like.