1/3 contingency fee agreement He gets 1/3, you get 2/3 of any settlement or judgement. If it comes to a lawsuit, you pay costs from a refundable $500 retainer. If you have a strong case and are open to accepting a compromise, I'd doubt there would be any costs, such as court costs. Just call Mr. Farber and speak with him, or an attorney who works for him. They are pretty common sense folks, who will tell you about whatever fee they anticipate. They are free to decline to take a case, too.
RE: Consider Thisâ?¦ To Rich from Mark Aronson Sunday morning Nov 5-2000 It does not matter how small your individual claim may be, or what it may be worth, for if what they did to you was also done to many others, it is ripe for a class action. See my two postings lower down on this topic. The lawyer pays all costs in a class action. I am not a licensed (practicing) attorney but I am a plaintiff in two class actions - so I know how this works. The lawyer who filed the class action in Philadelphia against NCO, NCO GREAT TRUST and the 3 CRAs is one of my lawyers in one of the class actions where I am named as a plaintiff. I would bet that this lawyer would like to take on Gulf States and possibly the 3 CRAS over this happening. Mark Aronson mba9999@aol.com
yes, but... the average class action plaintiff gets $25, and the lawyer gets $10 million. the idea is representation of a lot of small claims that would otherwise be too small to be worthwhile to litigate.
Class vs. Single Suit Mark: As Pat has rightly pointed out in a case like this one class actions are often limiting, and very often not worth the plaintiffsâ?? time. Restrictions on settlement (they must be approved by court), qualified plaintiffs (they must be directly effected), and very cumbersome procedural limits are but a few more unattractive features. Tactically class actions donâ??t carry the muscle individual filings do, because cost of defense isnâ??t that much different (in relative terms). Also if the lead plaintiff were offered a handsome deal (settlement), he/she could not withdraw unless all similar claims are likewise resolved. Donâ??t get me wrong; class actions have a definite place in consumer protection. But in this case Gulf States is very likely a small time outfit ill-equipped to handle defense, not alone mass settlement. Because the biggest drawback to class filings is a prerequisite for deep pockets, otherwise there is no point. Keep The Faith, Anthony Villaseñor CreditDefenses.com
RE: Class vs. Single Suit I am informed that in a certain class action filed against a cell phone company, each of the named representative plaintiffs received fifty thousand dollars, although it appears that an "incentive" payment to a class representative in a case that settles would more likely be $1000-$5000. I had filed a class action as a representative plaintiff here in Pittsburgh (filed against a cable TV provider concerning late fees) and the Pennsylvania courts dismissed it. Nevertheless I was informed last week that there was a settlement of a national class action against that same company and the court where the settlement took place entered an order directing that I and every other person in the USA who had instituted a class action suit over late fees against the same company are going to be receiving a check. It was purely unexpected.
Creditrust=sleaze balls Yes that is the sleazy company that sent me a letter regarding my account with them and did I want to settle for a small amount. This debt was from 1989, I said yeah right
From A Tactical Point Mark: Again class actions serve a vital consumer protection function, no disputing the fact. However, in a situation where there are let say ten (10) to twenty (20) known effected consumers (spread across the country)? The superior strategy may be to file separate cases for respective national regions, thereby increasing the likelihood of a win by attrition. A hit `um from all sides approach. Admittedly, Iâ??m not a great fan of class actions related to FDCPA because they tend to take away consumer leverage. Most consumers only desire a redress of their CBRs, and this is far easier to do by single complaint than class pursuit. Simply put itâ??s a matter of leverage and gaining the most for oneâ??s agenda. In many FDCPA related instances this is better accomplished through individual lawsuits than class action, albeit each serve a vital purpose. Keep The Faith, Anthony Villaseñor CreditDefenses.com
RE: From A Tactical Point Anthony: You are absolutely 100% correct that individual actions filed in various parts of the country may be much more effective than a class action when there are only ten to twenty similarly affected consumers. I thought it was understood that the conduct of creditors and the credit reporting agencies that irks me affects hundreds of consumers at the minimum, and maybe even thousands, yes thousands, of consumers. NCO and NCO Great Trust, and NCO FIN SVC for example: they repackaged and reaged an old stale account of mine that had been on my credit report for 7 years and had come off. I had disputed a credit card account and the bank wrote it off in 1991. NCO re-entered it as a new account in 1999, just currently in default, in its own name, and it would have remained on my credit report for another 7 years had I sat back and did nothing. I did do somethings: (1) I filed an individual action and insisted on going through with the hearing, (2) I had a court reporter take notes of and transcribe the testimony of NCO's lawyer who came to the hearing and testified, and her testimony is of record and available to the workd upon request, (3) I went online hoping to hear from others that this may have happened to. I have been hearing from about 4-10 people a week since April. That's alot of people, considering that most consumers to whom this was done are not aware of the NCO entry on their credit reports unless they have applied for credit and been rejected, and obtain a copy of their report, or are informed of the NCO entry by a prospective lender or mortgage broker concerning a current request for credit. NCO is not the only one. I mentioned others in a posting to what I believe is your messageboard yesterday. As for Creditrust Corporation, which gets discussed on the message boards, I obtained an opinion out of the W.D. of Pennsylvania reported at 7 F. Supp 2d 589 (1998) that stated that under Pennsylvania's consumer protection law, the factfinder is authorized to award a successful claimant punitive damages in addition to that figure which is the greater of $100.00 or treble the claimant's ascertainable damages, plus reasonable counsel fees. I changed careers from an overly hectic active one about 10 years ago, and now I enjoy as a hobby lashing back when a collection agency or "creditor" gets out of hand. If the applicable law is unsettled, I do not mind doing what has to be done to try to get answers. My biographical sketch appears in Who's Who in the East, .....in Finance and Industry, .....in the East, .....in American Law (I am not licensed to practice Law), .....in America, and .....in the World. No credit reporting agency or collection agency or creditor is going to bully me. It really upsets me to see what they must try to get away with when dealing with the "unsophisticated consumer". mba9999@aol.com November 5, 2000
class actions if one wishes to engage counsel to begin a class action, I suggest: www.lchb.com it is a respected San Francisco law firm
