Hello, I am wondering, what is the usual minimum amount for people to sue? And does this change of it's corporate? It's 4000$ for some copyright infringements. It was * really * a honest mistake but getty images is very unflexible. I think i can make the agent see that there really isn,t much to go after. ( which happens to be true ) so I am just wondering if the worse is credit report note. Or else? Thanks -P
Depends on a lot of factors. Some collection attorneys in some jurisdictions have law students and paralegals who do nothing but live at small claims court filing suits for a couple hundred bucks. Small claims costs $20, plus a few minutes of paralegal time and you've got the debtor facing a law suit and possible judgement.
Small claims here is $40 to $50 depending on the amount you are suing for. When I was last in small claims the JDB's must have had almost 100 cases of Palisades vs defendant, and all except one person was there, all the rest got defaults. Not bad for a days work, and this is what these lechers live for. Get a quick judgement and at least a small percentage of the people will have to pay something, and the something is always a lot more than the JDB paid. : (
In a lot of places the odds favor this wholesale approach. JDB pays $0.05/$1.00 (sometimes more, oftentimes, much less) so all they need to collect on is 1 in 20 of the debts and they've broken even. When court costs are minimal (e.g. $50/claim) then that just lowers the overhead even more. In my state, the Small Claims limit is $4,000 so a $50 overhead is pretty low on a $4,000 claim. The downside for them is, if it was hard to collect the original debt, it is probably not going to be easy to collect on it later...But, all they need is 1 in 20 so...
I learned a few months ago, that in my state (Oregon), if you respond with a denial, you are automatically set up for mediation. This is where the judge first requires all small claim parties to attempt to "work out an acceptable arrangement," prior to the judge "ruling." I'm guessing that most folks don't know this, so a $100 debt can easily go against the defendant for ignoring the small-claims summons/action, and a default judgment is issued. As mentioned above, the money is in the number of cases, so do not think you will not be "sued" for some small amount, especially if the creditor/CA is local. If you live in a large metropolitan area where national creditors have arrangments with attorneys within your state, I would guess it is more likely that an attorney will file for suit, regardless of the amount. I live in a very rural area, and local court laws allow for "setoffs" where either party can ask for a "new" hearing date and claim they cannot make the set date. you can imagine how a debtor could use this to their advantage, especially if the plaintiff has set aside a day to make a trip to small claims, only to find they now have to wait for an additional 15 - 30 days for a new hearing. There is not much money in that for the plaintiff. Every state and jurisdiction is different, but if the CA or OC is local, and a few steps from the courthouse, expect them to sue for any amount. JMHO
I want to add that the small claims in my state is (I believe) $5000. It is very easy to file a small claim (about $80) and gamblethat the defendant will not ask for a hearing. If you, the defendant, do not ask for a hearing, then the plaintiff automatically gets a default judgment. On the other hand, if you answer requesting a hearing it might be very unlikely that the plaintiff will even show up if they are a national and large credit card company. In addition, all small claims in Oregon cannot be appealed. So, always deny the claim in the suit and follow through with a hearing or trial. That's my take!
