Today i just received notice that the plaintiff capital one was granted summary judgment by default on dec 16th 2008. Why did they grant the summary judgment by default?I showed up at least. In new york state we have a homestead exemption of 100,000 per couple.Since we owe about 50,000 on our house and the market value is 100,00 can they still put a lien on our house?We also have the new exempt income law in ny. that went into effect jan 1 2009.I am on disability and have no assets in my name other than our house and my car that i owe 4,000 on and its worth 3,500 Remember i gave the plaintiff and court for the record a letter that i hereby claim every exemption entitled me under nycplr article 52? So if their attorney tries to collect on this judgment can i take them to court? Thanks in advance for your reply. PS The judgment was granted on the affidavit of Maisha Davis you warned me about her and esq Michael J Florio and upon exhibits and all pleadings heard by the court.
I'd like to see that affidavit if at all possible. Can you scan it and email it to me at cap1sucks @ gmail com? Just attach it to the message. Most likely it is a false and misleading affidavit. Who was the lawyer that sued you? I can point out what I find that is false and misleading. If you prove that the affidavit is false and misleading you will have to sue the attorney and name TSYS as co-defendant. I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that you were going to get a judgment against you. That was a foregone conclusion. Winning in a local court against seasoned attorneys takes someone who has years of learning and a solid background of having experience in dealing with a great number of cases nationwide. Most attorneys simply don't have that kind of experience. Even if someone has that background they will still lose most of the time although someone like that can give them an awfully good run for their money. In order to actually win they must also have experience in filing and winning federal lawsuits against attorneys and debt collectors. First time Pro Se litigants are in for a rough time of it in federal court even though they will probably win in the end. To win you must have solid proof of your allegations, know how to prepare your complaint, cover sheet, table of authorities and memorandums of law. You must know your rules of federal procedure and evidence. You have to sign up for Pacer as well. You also have to get a copy of your local rules of procedure. I know that sounds daunting but it can be done. Just takes time and study and preferably someone to help you prepare who has the background to do that. Most lawyers won't help you as a Pro Se and probably won't take such a case anyway. If you file you should be shooting for a final settlement agreement that pays your court costs, attorney fees, gets rid of the judgment with prejudice, and pays you something above $2,000 in damages. That isn't hard to get unless you are holding out for some figure well above the $5,000 mark and you don't even want to think about that unless you can also bring in FCRA violations.
capone, So do you recommend that debtors go to federal court at all? I was under the impression that that was the more consumer-friendly venue, as opposed to district court where I lost.
Absolutely! Regardless of the greater complexity and adherence to rules of procedure and evidence federal is the only way to go if you want to get the monkey off your back. Once you have learned the ropes you can actually prepare a case in an hour or two. The difference is that while it might take you a couple of hours to prepare a federal case once you know how you can actually prepare a local court defense in 1 hour or less. I can prepare a local case defense in about 15 minutes and have the response, the validation letter, the certificate of mailing and the 40 question demand for admissions all ready to go. Then of course it will take a bit of extra time for the printer to get it's work all done. I can do that because I already have all those on my hard drive and I can make all the necessary changes in maybe 5 to 15 minutes. Once you have all that it is simple to do.
