Strom Law Blog

As reported by the Times and Democrat, a disturbance that occurred at the Gilmore Tax Service on October 15th, and the receipt of a complaint, has promoted the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s office to launch an ongoing inquiry into claims that the Gilmore tax service has charged several residents a $25.00 application fee in an attempt to receive money from the Black Farmers’ lawsuit.

According to the Sheriff’s incident report, individuals claimed that they were told that they could file forms for a $25 fee at Gilmore Tax Service and receive $50,000.00 from the Pigford, or black farmers’ class action lawsuit.

“Pigford”, the informal case name, refers to one of the plaintiffs in the original litigation.

As a result of the lawsuit’ the USDA agreed to compensate eligible farmers for past discrimination in lending and other USDA programs.

Contrary to claims set forth in the intial complaint, neither Congressman James Clyburn’s office, attorney Quinton Robinson of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Strom Law Firm or the Morgan & Morgan law firm have had any dealings with Mr. Gilmore, nor have they instructed him on how to file the client questionnaire and the Pigford Claim Retainer Agreement.

We want to make sure that our readers understand that you do not need to pay money to any individual, farm advocacy group, or law firm to bring a claim under the Farm Bill or to participate in the Black Farmers lawsuit.

Paying money to any individual or group will not reserve your spot in the case, increase your chance of success, or enable you to receive a faster recovery.

Gilmore filed approximately 100 claims over a three day period last month. Although Gilmore has denied charging a fee to the hundreds of people who have shown up looking for help, he admits that he accepted “donations” to cover his copying and mailing “expenses”.

The Strom Law Firm aggressively represents individuals in a variety of legal matters. Our firm proudly handles personal injury, criminal defense, defective products, class actions, pharmaceutical liability, toxic torts, medical malpractice, nursing home neglect, workers compensation, social security, veteran’s benefits, qui tam, predatory lending, tax investigations, business litigation, and wills and estates. Our lawyers proudly edit the Columbia, South Carolina Injury Board as well as the Strom Law Blog as a pro bono effort to provide the public valuable information. Our lawyers are licensed in: South Carolina, New York, and Georgia.