As an Army Reserve captain in Iraq and Kuwait from December 2002 through September 2004, Bolden was a logistics director for supply and transportation, managing three warehouses, a dozen managers and 300 employees.

During that time he was also paying rent every month on the Milpitas apartment where his wife and infant daughter awaited his return.

When Bolden, 39, did return, he was forced to use his savings to pay his rent because he was laid off from his electrical engineer job at Micron Technology while serving overseas.

Although Bolden immediately started a job search, by June of this year, his savings were running out.

Bolden says he tried to talk to the management of his apartment complex "to make some type of arrangement to pay a few days late."

The apartment managers served him with an eviction notice on June 7, three days after he was unable to make his monthly payment.

When Bolden did gather the rent money, they refused to accept it.

"I was pretty upset they wouldn't give me extra time," Bolden says. "They gave me the standard canned answers instead of taking a second look at my case."

His eviction notice came up in a conversation Bolden had with Ferrer regarding the firm's representation of him in his layoff.

"It was outrageous," Ferrer says. "For him to go overseas, to be called up for duty, to serve honorably, to come home and face the situation he did and not even be given the courtesy of being able to work out a viable solution to this matter given the sacrifices he has made, was intolerable."

Ferrer, along with colleagues David Duperrault and Greg Charles, immediately went into action and offered to represent Bolden in his eviction pro bono.

Charles, a litigator, says, Bolden's rental payment was due on June 4 and when he missed it, the landlords began eviction proceedings three days later. When Bolden was able to get together his June rent money the landlords wanted $600 more for attorney fees and costs.

"Every time I tried to work with the landlord, they said, 'It's my way or the highway,' '' Bolden says.

On July 14, Charles, Ferrer and Duperrault joined Bolden in court. The landlord's attorney then prevailed upon the landlord to accept the reasonable offer. Gerald made his rental payment and got back in good standing with the landlord.

The trio of attorneys was doubly pleased with the victory when Bolden received a job offer the following day.

Bolden says he was frustrated both by the length of time it took him to find a new job and the eviction notice.

"The unfortunate part is there is no process or programs or systems in place to help a veteran who isn't injured, disabled or killed," Bolden says. "If you come back healthy, they assume everything's going to be great for you and that's not necessarily true with the slowdown of the economy and living in a high-rent area. They let you draw unemployment, but it doesn't help if you live in San Jose."

Although he's eligible for a VA loan, Bolden says the guaranteed loan of $180,000 he could borrow won't buy him housing in Silicon Valley.

Bolden says his captain's rank brought in a sufficient income to be able to support his wife and daughter back home. "If my rank had been lower, like a private first class or a sergeant, I wouldn't have made it," he says.

Even though Bolden is now working, he had to use up all my savings and liquidate his 401K, thus starting from scratch.

Charles says this is the first such case the 10-year-old law firm has handled, but he fears that Bolden's situation isn't an isolated one. "Gerald served his country honorably. He willingly went. When you sign up for the armed forces, this can happen and in today's times it's happening a lot more than it did 10 or 15 years ago."