Erika Louise Hartley

We highly recommend Mrs. Erika Hartley’s services without any reservation for any special needs children and their family, in need of competent and powerful representation. With Mrs. Hartley representing our autistic child, we handily won two back-to-back cases against the NYC Department of Education... (DOE) for funding two years of private school education. And since we will have to sue every school year for the tuition funding, we feel very grateful and lucky to have her fighting on our side. After receiving intensive ABA services as part the state’s Early Intervention program, our child was verbal and on a good academic track. After turning five years old, and five years into the District 75 program, our child regressed and flat-lined academically, lost the nascent verbal skills, regressed in potty training, and developed deeply concerning new behavior such as aggression, biting, and inappropriate self stimulation in school. With the guidance of our parent’s advocate, we requested and obtained evaluations to be performed on our child at DOE expense. We did not even know our child had those rights. A neuropsychological evaluation report stated that placement in a focused program such as ABA or DIR in a specialized school, should be considered for our child. When we brought it up in the consequent meeting with the school, the school stated it could not provide either, but had what our child needed. After another disappointing academic year, it was time to bring a big caliber gun to the negotiation table, and our advocate introduced us to Mrs. Hartley. With her assistance, we gave the DOE proper notice, and filed a petition to place our child into a private school with a DIR focused program at DOE expense. Within the first year at the new school, our child’s behavioral issues and their sensory root cause were addressed and regulated. The DOE settled to fund the second year for failing to initiate an IEP, but refused to fund the first school year’s tuition, contending that we were uncooperative, and placing our child into a private school was unwarranted. This led to the impartial hearing. In preparation, Mrs. Hartley went over years of documents we sent her, and worked with us on drafting the parents’ affidavits. With her input on what details were relevant and needed to be included, the new school’s affidavit went from a one page statement to a booklet. Mrs. Hartley dotted the “i”s and crossed the “t”s until everything was airtight, and it paid-off. From the beginning of the impartial hearing, we were noticeably better prepared than the other party. At the height of the COVID pandemic, Mrs. Hartley made sure that the hearing officer and other relevant parties had the necessary documents ahead of time, properly formatted. The hearing officer commented as such out of frustration, while chiding the other party’s attorney for not being able to do the same with the vast resources of the DOE at her disposal. Subsequently, Mrs. Hartley proceeded to execute what Elon Musk calls a “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” of the DOE’s arguments. She methodically squeezed answers out of the DOE’s witnesses that strengthened our case, while respectfully but aggressively shielding us against any discrediting attempts by the DOE’s attorney. The impartial officer’s final ruling fully vindicated everything we fought for. When we hired Mrs Hartley’s services, we got a lot more than a seasoned attorney. We were also blessed with a steadfast ally who genuinely cared and had a personal stake in helping our child. Thank you Mrs. Hartley!

My initial consultation with Mrs. Erika Hartley Esq. took place in 2014, as a Special Needs Education Attorney. My first impression of Ms. Hartley is that she is a strong woman that is passionate about the work she does. She was very personal and helped me to understand that i wasn't alone. She k...ept me motivated, and stayed on top of things every step of the way. What i respected the most about Mrs. Hartley is that she explained the process to me, she broke it down to me, no matter how much questions i ask, she didn't make me feel as if i was incompetent. She helped me to understand there is no i in team that we both needed to stay in communication with one another throughout the whole process and be on time for all evaluations. Her strength and passion really shines through her, which motivated me at all times not to give up she made me want justice more for my child. God only knows how many times my strength nearly failed me. I highly recommend Mrs. Hartley as a Special Needs Attorney she is truly blessed and gifted, straight to the point, dedicated, passionate, and has a powerful presence in the Court Room. My daughter is going on 12 years of age and she started a state approve school over 6 months ago, it wouldn't have happened if Mrs. Hartley didn't make certain recommendations to the DOE. This is when you know you hired a great attorney when they can look at your child and automatically tell you whats wrong as if she tested your child herself, that showed me she was highly experienced. And everything she said turned out to be true, and when i asked her how she knew all these things she explained to me the years of work with other children like mines. My daughter has never been more happy she is not being bullied anymore, she went from getting 50's on her tests and now she gets 80's and 100's so happy that my daughter is so much better now, she even has more confidence in herself. That's all the justice i need!! Now i am more at ease, she took on a more sensitive case with my oldest daughter that seems to have more twist and turns but as long as i followed her instruction and stayed on point i was good to go. Ms. Erika Hartley Esq. won the first case for my oldest daughter now we are fighting another case together all i have to say is watch out world here comes Mrs. Hartley!!! If you are looking for an attorney to fight for your children's academical goals call Mrs. Hartley Thank you Mrs. Hartley Esq. for all your hard work May the lord continue to bless you in all his ways