Your landlord is trying to evict you in housing court. You have consulted lawyers, housing advocates, and court personnel, and you have been told that you have a very good case.

Unfortunately, it is not enough to have right and justice on your side. It could cost more than $20,000 to pay a lawyer to bring a housing court case to trial. The landlord can afford to pay a lawyer to go after you, because he stands to make tens of thousands of dollars in higher rents by vacating the apartment. Thus, a housing court case often becomes a contest of who will run out of money first.

Not only do you face thousands of dollars in bills from your own lawyer, but if you lose the case, the landlord may go after you for his own legal fees.

Nevertheless, there is a bright side: years ago, the laws were changed to allow tenants to seek legal fees from landlords to the same extent that the landlords can seek them from the tenant. For those leases authorizing the landlord to recover legal fees, Real Property Law § 234 allows the tenant to go after the landlord for legal fees if you beat him in trial.

Section 234 was enacted to level the playing field between tenants and landlords, and to discourage frivolous landlord litigation. Duell v. Condon, 84 N.Y.2d 773, 622 N.Y.S.2d 891 (1995).

In reality, the law failed to achieve its purpose. Tenants face a catch-22: a tenant can force the landlord to pay his/her legal fees once the case is won, but how is the tenant going pay her lawyer while the case is going on?

For the poor, Legal Aid Society and Legal Services provide legal services for free. For middle class tenants, it is not as easy. I try in my law practice to find creative solutions to help make it financially easier for middle class tenants to fight unscrupulous landlords.

I identify tenants with exceptionally good cases, and let them pay a fraction of my bill. After I win, I force the landlords to pay the balance. If I lose, I write off the balance. All my tenant clients have to do is tell the truth, cooperate, and pay any expenses.

America's justice system is a pay-as-you-go system; big landlords have the advantages because they can afford the lawyers. For a small number of cases, I try to use § 234 to make my services more affordable to middle class tenants, by forcing abusive landlords to pay my legal bills.