Need Technical Help in Lawsuit

What would not filing and getting a summary judgment against you cost? If it's less than the cost of fighting it, then settle and be done with it. If it's likely to be more, then you'll have to find the budget for it.

Sometimes your only choice is between "bad" and "worse."

 

What was their complaint about? What type of case? Credit card or what? What was the basis for your counter claim?

They will charge you for every motion you file too. Why not see if you can file in forma pauperous?

Did they file them or just send them to you without filing? I'd be a bit surprised if they actually filed them. If you will set up a Google Docs account and put their demands up on Docs I'll take a look at them and see if I might be able to suggest some responses. Before you try to answer them you do need to be familiar with your state and local rules of procedure so you don't run afoul of the rules. The trick is to respond in such a way that they get nothing other than name, rank and serial number type of responses.

That shouldn't be hard to do

Again, usually not difficult to do and I'll try to help you with them for free

Now why would you want to do that? If I were to be sued I certainly would not want to file interrogatories on the Plaintiff. That would be the next to the last thing I would want to do because I wouldn't have any basis for the questions I might like to ask. In fact, I wouldn't even know what questions to ask until I had my responses to demand for admissions and for production of documents each spaced at least 30 days apart. My interrogatories would be based on their responses. Most likely I wouldn't have to go for interrogatories anyway.

But why didn't you send your demand for admissions at the same time you sent your response and counterclaim? That is what I would have done. As it is you are probably behind the timeline now because you didn't send your demand for admissions at the same time you sent your responses. How many days do you have left to respond according to the rules of civil procedure for your state? If you send your demands how many days do they have to respond according to rules of civil procedure? The times are different under RCP for the plaintiff and the defendant in many states. Right now I'd be more worried about getting my demand for admissions out to them by Monday morning or even today if I could. If you live anywhere near a big airport they may have a 24/7/365 Post office on the grounds. Most major airports do have post offices that never close.

Fourteen point, all caps. bold, centered and underlined.
Now then, I realize you probably didn't need that smart alec answer but then you didn't tell me what motions you are plainning to file so there isn't any way I could give you anything but a generic answer. As you probably know, each one will have to be different

Forma pauperous is the only way I know of.

Why times 4? How do you even know how many motions and response you will have to file before you get done with it all? You might not have to file so many and then again you might have to file many more than that which is another reason I like to take them to federal court instead of filing counterclaims which usually get dismissed or ignored anyway. All you are doing in local court is throwing money down the drain for the simple reason that you probably have less than a 1% chance to win going in. Local courts are quite often more expensive than federal courts to start off with and you have a much smaller chance to be victorious in local court than you do in federal. The only reason I would even dream of filing a counter claim in a local court case would be if the plaintiff filed in small claims and even then I would not file a counterclaim. I'd file a whole new case in district court. A small claims judge would simply dismiss my counterclaim but filing a claim in a higher court removes it to the higher court. The only reason I would file in a higher court would be because I couldn't use discovery in small claims so I'd want to move it to district where I could.

So go set up a Google Docs account and put their questions and demands up on the Docs page and give me editing permissions and I'll see what I can come up with for responses. I'll also need to know what state you are in so I can look up the rules of civil procedure for myself if I have to. Other than that don't leave any personal information for me or anyone else to see. Send me a P.M. with the link to the Docs page in it. If you make the link public I won't help you at all. Don't publish the page to the web either.

Google never crawls it's Docs pages and keeps all the search engines away from them. Same thing for the Google sites pages like the links pages I use in my signature line. They never show up in any search engines either. The only way anybody can even see the Docs pages you put up is if they have the link to them. Keeps things private that way.

 

I have been there and done that.I never paid the court a penny to answer a summons/complaint or interrogatories.I answered the interrogatories objecting to every one based on the grounds the plaintiffs questions violated the defendants privacy rights.I never heard from the ca's attorney again.

 

While that argument may have worked for you I would never recommend that anyone respond to all questions with the same response no matter what it might be. I had a lady ask me for some help yesterday. When I reviewed the admissions she had sent in to the plaintiff I was not the least bit surprised that the plaintiff's attorney is demanding severe sanctions.

Her demands were absolutely ridiculous and as the plaintiff's attorney is claiming had no bearing on the outcome of the case and were indeed frivolous and silly. She had got them off the net somewhere. She will be lucky indeed to escape the sanctions. On the other hand, the attorney hasn't followed the rules of procedure either in responding so is bringing his demands for sanctions with unclean hands. The attorney is claiming she did it for the purpose of impeding justice and of course that isn't true. The attorney is just angry because he had to take time to respond to a seemingly endless list of questions. His anger should not be sufficient cause for sanctions.

Certainly, using the same response for all questions can lead to sanctions or show cause motions to force the responder to either come up with proper responses or deem the interrogatories admitted.

 

True or false ?Summons/complaints filed by the plaintiff against the defendant is really nothing but here say unless the plaintiff provides legal documentation backing up plaintiffs charges against the defendant.Plaintiff uses information obtained from the original creditor to make these charges.However the original creditor is not the plaintiff. If the summons/complaint is served to anyone other than the defendant and is not enclosed in a sealed envelope private information about the defendant is being exposed to individuals not named as a defendant.
True or false?
Interrogatories question. Did defendant have any help preparing these interrogatories?
Defendants answer=Defendant objects on the grounds this question is irrelevant regarding these proceedings.
True or false?
Admissions question.Defendant applied to Citibank for credit card account number xxxxxxx.
Answer=Defendant does not admit that defendant applied for Citibank credit card with account number xxxxxxx.Citibank is not a plaintiff in this proceeding.Plaintiff has not provided and legal documentation that plaintiff has legal standing regarding this issue.

 

I would say that might be true.

While there are other possible responses that one is just about as good as any and is certainly true.

The deny and give your explanation. A simple denial without some logical explanation is usually not allowable under the civil rules of procedure in most states.

What says they have to prove legal standing? What rule, law or statute says that the plaintiff must establish the jurisdiction of the court? Jurisdiction and standing are two different animals but they do go hand in hand. Jurisdiction deals with the authority of the court to try a certain case or type of case while standing addresses the issue of whether or not the plaintiff has a right to bring suit. Establishing jurisdiction and standing are easy to prove in federal court but not so easy to disprove in local courts.

Those issues must be resolved coming out of the box in federal court. Federal courts must also review the situation to determine on it's own whether or not they have jurisdiction and whether or not the plaintiff has standing to sue. It is up to the plaintiff to establish those things and the plaintiff's arguments must be correct or the court will correct them for the plaintiff and sometimes much to the plaintiff's chagrin or dismay. Fortunately, once you know how to establish both the standing and the jurisdiction issues it is not difficult to do.

 

Is it not legal to question the plaintiffs legal standing and/or jurisdiction if the defendant was not provided any legal documentation regarding these issues?
One claim a plaintiff made in a summons/complaint was that the plaintiff has purchased the legal rights to collect the full amount due plus interest.Is this statement not here say if the plaintiff has not provided to the court and defendant legal proof of this?Does the plaintiff have to provide legal proof to each claim enclosed in a summons /complaint otherwise it is here say?
I would think that the defendant has a legal right to demand legal documentation for each claim made by the plaintiff.Otherwise the claim is here say.
I also would think that the defendant has the legal right to object to every interrogatory question and notice to admit question as long as the objection is based on valid grounds.
What say you Cap1 sucks?

 

The Summons alerts you to the action. You would respond with an Appearance if you want to follow along with the case. A Complaint puts you on notice of the issues in the action. You can Answer it or there are possibly other responses. But they aren't evidence. Often evidence is included at the same time in these sorts of cases, which may or may not be hearsay, including but not limited to affidavits, account statements, original creditor statements, a chain of legal title.

Since the Complaint, and everything that is included with it, is generally filed with the court and available publicly for anyone to see, Dumb Bob doubts that letting someone see the original served copy will move the court to tears.

It is common for discovery battles like this to take place. Try asking the Plaintiff questions and see how many silly objections they come up with. The real danger, they know, is after you are compelled to answer and you still refuse. Before that, "I object based on the fact that the sky is blue" is sometimes about the size of it.

Admissions are complicated because if you admit certain of them, you are admitting to the entire case. Of course, if you don't admit something and force the other side to prove it, and you should have admitted it, you can be forced to pay for the costs of proving it. This can be where it is handy to have a lawyer available.

 

If it is the original creditor, this is highly unlikely to work because they will have someone who is competent to swear out an affidavit and get the alleged business records admitted. They won't need a chain of title since they are the original creditor. But if they are a JDB, better go find out exactly what your state law says to do to challenge this. Better read all the case law to see where you might make mistakes.

Conclusory statements from the lawyer in the Complaint shouldn't be used as evidence. But it might be that your state assumes the truth of an assignment if you don't properly challenge it. This is why it's so important to research your specific situation completely. Obviously a lawyer in your jurisdiction could help. Failing that, it's time to go to the law library.

They will usually provide an affidavit that is used to admit the documents they will also provide as business records. This will likely occur at summary judgment if you provide some sort of answer to the summons. Often defendants respond to, apparently, only the plaintiff and submit nothing to the court. This can leave the judge confused. But by not submitting their own affidavits, properly served, the defendants almost always lose at summary judgment, even in JDB cases.

The problem is, most defendants don't follow the rules. Even if they wish to contest something, they often don't provide that in writing. It's a little late with your admissions to come in at summary judgment and insist that you didn't respond because the questions weren't reasonable. There is a strict time limit. And summary judgment is really intended to be done mostly with affidavits and written briefs. If the judge has to allow live testimony, why not just have a full trial?

 

Yes, it is legal to question plaintiff's standing and it is also legal to question the jurisdiction of the court. However simply stating that the plaintiff has no legal standing isn't going to cut any ice with the court. You must be able to show why the plaintiff does not have standing to sue in your local court. That means you must have statute law or case law to back up your position. It is the same with jurisdiction. There are multiple parts to jurisdiction and you must address all of those that might apply and have statutory authority stating what your position is. It is much better if you have both case law and statutory law to back up your claim. Local courts always assume jurisdiction whether they really have it or not. You have to rebut that assumption if you can.

Such statements are always accepted by the courts. In order to rebut that assumption you must show cause why that assumption is incorrect. The burden of proof is upon he who makes the allegation.

No. Again it is up to the defendant to rebut.

You need to learn and understand what the term hear say means. It seems to me that you do not know what it means nor what constitutes hear say.

So what are the legal grounds upon which one may object? Let us suppose that I am the plaintiff and I send you the following interrogatories:
1. Please state your full name.
2. Please state your present mailing address
3. Please state your date of birth
4. Please state the full name of your spouse.
5. Please state your place of employment
6. Please state whether or not you ever applied for a credit card from the plaintiff.
7. Please state whether or not you have ever been issued a credit card by the plaintiff.
8. Please state whether or not you ever received or obtained any cash, merchandise or services which you paid for by offering the credit card issued to you by the plaintiff.
9. Please state whether or not you have ever made any payments to the plaintiff.
10. Please state the date upon which you made your last payment to the plaintiff and how you made that payment
11. Please state the amount of money you believe that you owe the plaintiff.
12. Please state whether or not you ever knowingly allowed any other person to use the credit card issued to you by the plaintiff
13. Please state whether or not you believe that there may be an identity theft issue involved.
15. Please state whether or not you intend to introduce any witnesses at trial and what their testimony might be.
16. Please state what documents you intend to introduce at trial.
17. Please state the names and addresses of any person or persons who has assisted you in the preparation of your defense.
18. Do you currently own or operate any firms, companies or corporations?

List of demands for admissions.
1. Please admit that you applied for a credit card from the plaintiff.
2. Please admit that you received a credit card from the plaintiff.
3. Please admit that you used the credit card which you received from the plaintiff to obtain cash or merchandise or services.
4. Please admit that the correct account number issued to you by the plaintiff was 1234 5678 9101 1213.
5. Please admit that you never advised the plaintiff of any billing disputes.
6. Please admit that you have no documents which you plan to introduce at trial.
7. Please admit that you have no present plans to introduce any witnesses on your behalf at trial.
8. Please admit that you have used information found on the internet to aid in forumlating your defense.
9. Please admit that the amount claimed due and owing by the plaintiff is the true and correct amount owed by you.
10. Please admit that you have no setoffs to the amount claimed due and owing by the plaintiff.
11. Please admit that the date of filing of this instant complaint is within the statute of limitations defined by statute in this state.
12. Please admit that the copy of the credit card agreement provided to you by the plaintiff is a true and correct copy of the agreement you entered into by using the credit card to obtain cash, merchandise or services for your personal use.
13. Please admit that you have received true and correct copies at least 24 past billing statement by mail, one for each of the last 24 months.
14. Please admit that you never communicated any disagreement with any statements sent to you by the plaintiff.

Please produce the following documentation.
1. Please produce a copy of your current drivers license.
2. Please produce all copies of your state and federaal tax returns for the last two years.
3. Please produce a copy of two different current utility bills from your current place of residence
3. Please produce all bank statements for the past two years.
4. Please produce copies of all correspondence you have ever had with the plaintiff.
5. Please produce copies of all correspondence you ever had with any representative of the plaintiff.
6. Please produce copies of any and all documents you intend to introduce at trial.
7. Please produce the full names, addresses and phone numbers of any persons you intend to call as witnesses at trial.
8. Please produce the last two pay stubs you received from your current employer.
9. If you are the recipient of any form of welfare, Social Security, veteran's benefits please provide a copy of your latest benefits letters.
10. If you are retired from any railroad position please provide a copy of your latest pension check
11. If you are an employee of any firm, company or corporation please provide the name, address and phone number of that firm, company or corporation.
12. If you own any firm, company, or corporation provide proof of such ownership.
13. Please provide titles of any motor vehicles, boats, trailers, motor homes or aircraft you own.
14. Please provide copies of any notes and mortgages and the legal description of any and all real estate which you are the owner or co-owner.

Now then Mr(s) Peeper please tell me how you would object to any or all of the items listed above and do so in such a manner that your responses do not violate any state rule of civil procedure which might exist in your state. If you object to or deny any interrogatory, admission or demand for production please give me an acceptable reason why you objected or denied each and every one.

While you can either object or deny the vast majority of those questions, admissions or demands for production of documents if you fail to do so properly I will immediately take any one or more of the following actions against you.
1. File motion to deem admitted.
2. File demand for subpoena dueces tecum.
3. File motion to show cause why you should not be sanctioned by the court.
File motion for summary judgment because there are no issues of triable fact before the court.

If I were the defendant would I give the plaintiff full and complete responses to those interrogatories, admissions and demand for production of documents? Of course not. So if you were to walk the above mile in my shoes what would you do to avoid responding to the above demands in such a way as to avoid censure by the court? Also please remember that all your responses must be sworn to in front of notary public under penalty of perjury.

Will all other posters please refrain from adding your two cents to the conversation until such time as Peeper has responded. This should be interesting indeed.

 

Attorneys for the plaintiff seldom produce any affidavits these days and when they do there is only about a 10 percent chance that they will be valid affidavits and not phony trumped up garbage attested to by an employee of a 3rd party debt collector posing as an employee of the creditor and sworn to before a notary who is also an employee of the 3rd party debt collector.

The trick is proving that the affidavit is false and fraudulent beyond any shadow of a doubt. The mere assertion that such is the case will not do. The defendant would have to prove where the affiant and the notary actually work and engage them in a recorded phone conversation no matter how brief that conversation might be.

In some cases it is necessary to first of all pull the public records of both the affiant and the notary then do a background check on them to show their place of employment. Sometimes that is necessary and sometimes it is not. If it is, doing so is going to cost a fair amount of money. It cannot be done for free. The defendant must hire someone who has that ability such as a licensed private investigator. Lawyers can't do that easily if at all.

Usually it is not necessary to go that far. All notaries have a public record that can be accessed on line in most states. They are bonded and insured in most states and their bonds and insurance records are a matter of public record if you know how to access them. Those records will reveal their place of employment which will prove whether or not they are employed by the creditor as claimed.

Most such affidavits are stock forms printed out from a computer and sent over to the in-house notary who stamps and signs it without ever actually having the affiant stand in front of them to make their statements.

In one case the notary was called to testify and admitted that while she knew the affiant as a fellow employee she always notarized the statements in bulk which were then sent to the affiant's office where they would later be signed by the affiant. It was proven that the affiant never signed any of her affidavits but rather had a master copy with her signature then that document was always photocopied in mass quantities and sent out to attorneys along with the complaints all ready for the attorney to use in court. The notary was decommissioned and given two years in prison.

In another case the alleged notary had never applied to be a notary but was provided with a notary seal by her employer who had ordered the seal from a rubber stamp maker from another state. That notary was heavily fined for falsely representing herself to be a notary and thereby falsely acting under the color of law. She should have spent at least a couple of years in the slammer as well but she apparently got out of it by claiming that her employer had simply brought her the stamp and told her she was now a notary and what he wanted her to do. She probably claimed that she simply didn't know any better and had no reason to doubt her employer.

Some of those examples were obtained from Edleman and Combs law firm of Chicago. In the case of the notary who was sent to prison, a lady from Chicago whom I know dug up the evidence and wanted E and C to take her case. They refused until she filed the criminal complaint which ended up sending the Georgia notary to prison. Then they revealed that they had a class action lawsuit going against the same collection agency which was supposed to have been tried in court sometime in December and wanted the Chicago lady to join in with them in their class action lawsuit. She told them where to go. I haven't heard whether it is now settled or what any settlement might have been so have no further information about the E and C class action lawsuit.

Any affidavit filed by any attorney should be scrutinized and investigated with extreme care. Every case is different and some affidavits which have all the earmarks of being phony are not phony at all.

 

Cap 1 sucks.
I would object to the interrogatories and notice to admit questions on the grounds the plaintiffs interrogatories and notice to admit questions violate the privacy rights of the defendant since the original creditor is not a plaintiff regarding these matters and that plaintiffs statements are pure hear say
Hear say is when someone states a fact based on no documentation or proof that the fact is true.Just because someone claims you owe them money does not mean it is true.Why should a defendant admit or answer any questions of a plaintiffs when they have no idea who this plaintiff is?What gives the plaintiff a legal right to accuse someone of something when they provided no legal documentation to the defendant before hand?
Who would answer or admit to anything someone accuses them of without proof before hand?
What if someone you never knew sent you a summons/complaint accusing you of taking a computer they bought from a friend of theirs?Then they sent you interrogatories and also wanted you to admit or deny certain questions?Would you admit or deny their questions before you had some legal proof who they are and what their claiming is true or would you object?
Would you be ok with the fact they gave someone other than you this summons/complaint to notify you?Would you feel your privacy rights were violated?
Where am i going wrong here with my reply?
Do you think the defendant should be punished or sanctioned because he objects when answering the summons/complaint ,interrogatories and admit questions on these grounds?

 

That is not the definition of hear say. Sorry. Care to try again?

Sorry but that is not the definition of hear say which is a self explanatory phrase. Hear say is when the person giving testimoney tries to explain what they heard from another source but have no personal knowledge about that to which the are testifying.

Because if the defendant does not respond with proper responses the questions will be deemed admitted anyway

I can file a lawsuit against you claiming that you owe me umpteen thousand dollars and it is up to you to defend however you can. You will have to respond to my complaint whether you know me or not.

It is done hundreds of not thousands of times every day all across America.

That is a criminal complaint unless all you want is payment for the computer. If I were accused of taking your computer in civil court I would have it dismissed for being filed in the wrong court. You should have filed a criminal complaint.

I would file motion to dismiss in that specific type of case. If it were a debt related case then I would respond to their questions with proper responses which would give them little or no information whatever.

That depends upon who they gave it to.

No.

You didn't properly answer any of the questions.

No, but it happens all the time right or wrong. The questions I asked you are pretty standard questions taken from a large number of such questions I have see sent to defendants.

 

I will answer all your questions with one answer.

Defendant objects on the grounds Plaintiffs Questions infringes on the privacy rights of the defendant since the plaintiff lacks legal standing regarding this matter.Plaintiff has not provided any legal documentation that Plaintiff is the legal owner of said account mentioned in this matter.

Remember now the plaintiff in this case is a third party.

 

OK. Peeper, let's just see how well that works for an answer. Here goes. Please click on the link in my signature line and look in the left hand sidebar and click on the link that says Peeper's response see if you would like me to make any changes in your responses.

 

Cap 1 sucks.

You win i quit.I have a headache.Thank God i never became a lawyer.Common sense won't cut it in the legal world.Thanks for the back and forth.You bring a lot of great information to this forum,I always enjoy reading your post.

 

After cap 1 you might try an insanity plead,i was worried about cap 1 for awhile but he seems to be at full strength now.LOL

 

This might be that the sky is blue. Discovery in many jurisdictions is between the parties and doesn't include the judge until there is a problem. So even excuses that are absurd, like the sky is blue, will likely get you to the point where the other side brings you before the judge to compel you to answer properly or gives up. If your answers have been utterly indefensible, the judge might respond less positively towards your insistence that you don't have to answer. So claiming that the sky is blue is your objection is probably not good.

Are you saying that you can ignore discovery because you think that the plaintiff doesn't have standing? As the defendant, you can generally file for summary judgment or dismissal at any time. If the plaintiff doesn't have standing, perhaps that's a better way to express that to the court.

 

Dumb Bob might respond by noting that you have not properly followed the court rules for sanctions in discovery. You made no effort to discuss FACE TO FACE with Dumb Bob or OVER THE PHONE with Dumb Bob, explaining to him how foolish his claims that he didn't have to answer because the sky is blue are. Furthermore, you didn't answer Dumb Bob's requests for admissions, his interrogatories or produce the documents that he demanded. Dumb Bob would never play the discovery game with one hand tied behind the back, especially his hand and especially his back.

You should feel free to file your motion with the court because Dumb Bob will file his dueling summary judgment motion right back at you. He thinks that there are no issues worth bothering with a trial too.