After several years of looking for help in different entities, Edilma Figueroa was able to reclaim her home in Soacha with the support of Sandra Castillo, lawyer from the Departamento de Patentes de Cavelier Abogados, who represented her legally in the fight to get her tenants to return her property.

Via a verbal contract, Edilma Figueroa rented her house for $200.000 monthly. Nevertheless, after some time, the tenants ceased to pay, even if they were called to reconcile in front of various institutions, they never showed up.

Through Fundación ProBono Colombia, the lawyer Castillo represented her pro bono client until a legal sentence was determined, with a delivery certificate, and all the other paperwork required to reinstate the property.

For the lawyer that took leadership in the case, it was an opportunity to put her expertise in procedural law. On her side, Mrs. Edilma is very grateful, because if she hadn’t gone to Fundación ProBono Colombia, she would have never gotten her house back.

About the lease fees that weren’t recognized , Castillo said that “Edilma was more interested in regaining the estate than recuperating the money. If we would have pleaded that aspect, the case would have become more complicated, we used that as the cause for termination of the contract y and the restitution, but without asking for the lease fees.”

She concluded that this type of process has certain difficulties, and that in the day to day there are always things to do, however, it is worth the effort after feeling the satisfaction of seeing the client happy as their case is solved.

Thanks to the legal advice from Andres Paz, attorney of DLA Piper Martinez Beltran, the applicant Jacqueline Salas could get her sentimental partners disability pension recognized, since they suffer of a loss of body capacity of over 90% due to a sickness that was not identified.

For Jacqueline, the ProBono Colombia Foundation, recommended by Colombia Diversa, was the light at the end of the tunnel after going to several advisors: state entities, people that work with the LGBTI community, and legal consultancies, without getting a definite solution.

Her and her partner, who she has lived with for 13 years, found in their pro bono lawyer a constant guide during the whole process, and fast results.

The case happened over parts; first the recognition of the disability pension, then formalizing the topic of the marital union so that from that moment Jacqueline could become Alba’s, her partner, beneficiary, within the Social Security System, and even that she could access the pension if something were to unfortunately happen.

According to Andres Paz: “The applications for social security are interesting, because it’s where one sees the real difference and where one accompany the people from a working point of view”. His intention is to continue supporting the pro bono clients, through Fundación ProBono Colombia, in other topics that came up during the experience they had together, such as some incapacities that their employer didn’t pay them correctly, among others, which are now unrelated to the pension.

The recognition of the pension bettered their quality of life by a hundred percent, taking in account that Jacqueline left her job as a bank advisor to be able to take care of her wife.

On the success of her case, the beneficiary from the pro bono service manifested that:

“The day to day change was radical because we came from a precarious situation (…) Now, we have a base to sustain our basic income of nutrition, living situation, and health that help Albita move forward. What happened with the news of the pension is incomparable, it even helped to concrete the public scripture of our marriage because there were a lot of things that were a mess and without the advisory we were in jeopardy.”