The first column I ever wrote for the Courier was entitled, Do I Need an Elder Law Attorney. The column was an example of shameless self-promotion. After all, I’m an elder law attorney. It’s how I make my living. Telling you that you need an elder law attorney seems like a not-so-indirect way of saying, “Call me.”

A wise salesman once told me that we’re all selling ourselves. Some of us like to think we’re above selling ourselves. I once did. But now I realize it’s true. When we’re teenagers, we try to sell ourselves to the newly-discovered opposite sex. When we get older, some say we end up selling our soul in order to get ahead. One thing is true – we are all trying to sell ourselves in some way.

Now, I may have come to terms with the fact that I am a salesman, but I also realize that I’m not a very good salesman. Although I think I could sell snowcones in the desert, I’d probably have a tough time. I’m one of those people who feels compelled to mention not only the positive side of something but the negative side, as well. A good salesperson tells you the negative side, too, but makes it sound like it could be positive. With me, it just sounds negative.

This is not to say that I didn’t, and don’t, believe every word I wrote in my first column. A person confronted with an issue of elder law should retain an elder law attorney. You wouldn’t hire a podiatrist to perform heart surgery, and you shouldn’t hire an attorney who practices bankruptcy law to help you with elder law. You certainly shouldn’t hire a non-lawyer.

In fact, the more I practice elder law, the more I realize that what I said in my first column is true.  For instance, most people apply for Medicaid benefits either on their own or have a family member apply for them. But Medicaid is an extremely complex area of the law.

The people who work at the Medicaid office are not lawyers. They work with the Medicaid program every day and have an understanding of the program, but they can’t be expected to understand every nuance of the law.

I could provide you with quotes from federal judges who have expressed dismay over the complexity of the Medicaid law. It is an area of the law that even for very learned and experienced judges is not easily understood.

So, what happens when you make an application for Medicaid benefits for your mother, and the Medicaid office tells you that your mother did something wrong? Mom’s in a nursing home, the nursing home costs $6,000 a month, and mom doesn’t have any more money with which to pay for her care. The nursing home is threatening to evict her for non-payment. Why not, they’re providing services to her? If mom doesn’t have any money left to pay them and Medicaid says that she doesn’t qualify, is the nursing home suppose to be punished for her mistake?

You have a right to appeal Medicaid’s decision, but could you navigate the appeals process? Do you understand the law, a law that is so complex it gives judges headaches. It’s not as if the Medicaid office is just going to give into your pleas for mercy. The truth is, you – or more specifically, your mother – are in trouble.

And if you think that this won’t happen to you, think again. I make a lot of applications for Medicaid benefits, and it happens quite often. And if you think that’s because I’m not doing things correctly, think again, again. As I mentioned, the people who work at the Medicaid office aren’t lawyers, so it is far more often they who do not fully understand the law, not me.

But they’re the ones with the money. Mom’s in the nursing home. She has no more money, only a monthly bill of $6,000 and a frustrated nursing home, which isn’t getting paid for the services it’s providing.

Do you need an elder law attorney? Absolutely! And that’s not a tough sell.