? Regarding Lawsuits I am preparing to file suit against a CA. I live here in TX and the CA is located in MI. Because they are in MI, do I have to file in Federal Court? The small claims says I must file in the county where the business is located. Am I missing anything here? Thanks in advance.
Re: ? Regarding Lawsuits Its probably not the same one, but can you post the name of the ca? I sued a ca in Michigan once...although with their laws, I'm sure there are zillions up there. I'm sorry I don't have any answers for you as I have no experience with small claims, but others on the board have run into the same problem. Some small claims courts will let you file and others say they don't have jurisdiction. The only info that I was able to come up with as far as what is a competant court of jurisdiction was it depended on the courts to determine that. I'm not articulating this very well...it was something to do with the individual courts policies. Do a search on this as I'm really, really not getting across what I'm trying to express here. L
Re: ? Regarding Lawsuits It is a small town collection agency called "Adrian Credit Bureau". They do have a collection department. What would you suggest doing a search on? Thanks for your reply.
Re: ? Regarding Lawsuits Taken from: http://www.edcombs.com/CM/News/news7.asp Small claims is a state court. Read the info below. An FDCPA suit "may be brought in any appropriate United States district court without regard to the amount in controversy", within one year of the date of violation. 15 U.S.C. §1692k(d). State courts have concurrent jurisdiction. A jury trial is available in FDCPA actions brought in federal court. Most courts have held that FDCPA litigation is appropriately filed within the district where the consumer received the communication. Officers and managers of the debt collector who have control over the procedures complained of may also be sued there. Filing in the district where the letter was received has been upheld even where the debt collector's letter had been forwarded to a district in which it did not do business. The debt collector normally may not bring counterclaims for either the underlying debt, or for bad faith and harassment
Re: ? Regarding Lawsuits Let me see if I can articulate this better. A court of competent jurisdiction is defined by statute. For small claims, whether or not it is a court of competent jurisdiction would be defined by state statutes as to what that particular small claims court has jurisdiction over. Many people here have filed in small claims court with no trouble, but others have had trouble with the courts saying they are not a court of competent jurisdiction. There is no clear cut answer to the question of "what is a court of competent juridiction?" It depends on whether or not the statute (in this case the FDCPA) specifically defines the court of competent jurisdiction. It doesn't, other than specifying US District Court, so then you would have to look at whether state statutes define it and the policies of the local small claims courts. Some small claims courts allow Federal FDCPA claims and others don't. As to whether those that don't are wrong or not, I don't know. Its not so clear. I just don't believe it is correct to state that all small claims courts are courts of competent jurisdiction. I don't believe it is that simple. L's two cents...
