I sued my local CA for FDCPA violations in July of this year... In my city and state for small claims you go in front of a magistrate to hear the case.. On Aug 19 2002 I received the magistrates decision that I had proved my case and he awarded me 1000.00 plus court costs... With my judgement it states the defendant has 14 days to file an appeal and if no appeal is filed judgement granted. Well yesterday in mail the CA hired an attorny and filed and appeal to the magistrates findings... So i guess ill have to wait a little longer for my money... I dont have a clue how they think that hiring an atty will save them.. My case is cut and dry...
I should hire a lawyer. Then they would have to pay him/her, too. When they see that you are serious enough for that, they'll settle. It's stupid to spend $5000 to avoid paying $1000.
what's the appeals process for you? Does it stay within Magistrate or does it bump to State court? I'd wait to hire an atty until you see what they file and where it goes... if you need to hire an atty... perhaps you can do it on 1/3 contingency since you already won... I hate to see you lose 300 of your hard earned 1k... but if you need an atty for the appeal someone might take it for that... pretty likely they'd get paid.
Lizardking, While awaiting the outcome of my first lawsuit with them for FDCPA violations I sent them another notice that i would be suing them again for FCRA violations... There in house atty sent me a letter stated that if i dont file another small claims suit they would delete all tradelines in which they did and i received the UDF's from the CA... So really i dont know what this new atty is going to do for them..
a UDF meant they knew they were in the wrong... big deal... get them now I agree with you that you should now file for fcra violations... fcra cases are better with actual damages... been denied for credit recently? if not... perhaps you could apply on Tues then you get actual damages in excess of 1k you'd get from just statutory damages... I'd also ask for injunctive relief since there is no remedy of law other than full removal which can make you whole again... and it would make them delete via the court order You know... you could make the collection agency an offer... full deletion and 1500 for both the lawsuit already won and the fcra lawsuit about to be filed... you sign a release and a nondisclosure if they want and then you're done and you have a check... you may want to point out that a new atty plus the new lawsuit will cost them more than 1500....
I wanted to make it clear that I meant that I WOULD hire a lawyer and that the COMPANY is stupid for paying out $5000 for a $1000 judgment. Do they really think that they'll win this time? Or is it a gesture to get you to back off?
maybe they fired their old lawyer... after all, he lost to a consumer hahahahaha!!! They're a very arrogant crowd... to lose to one another is one thing... but to a pro se litigant... ouch Of course, the atty can't make the CA Ees act within the confines of the law... so what does the CA really expect? I'm wondering if an appeal bumps it to another level of court where they'll try to pummel you with paperwork to get you to either settle or back off... either way, they're definitely trying to deter you from filing a fcra lawsuit too... so I say do it now before you see any paperwork from their appeal... file the FCRA lawsuit Tuesday (but definitely have actual damages for that one then they can just appeal both wins at once!!! You know.. if you applied for something large and get denied b/c of this entry... you'd really have reason to send a demand letter for real damages and that would put them squarely into District Court where their atty's retainer would likely be 2k and up (that's what my atty said it would be if he did anything in US District outside of a contingency)... so no matter what you do.. you're costing them money and it's fair because they broke the law! another idea also might be to sick the local atty general/ office of consumer affairs on them too... they can get fined for their behavior from the state and they may have a pattern of this behavior so you really should let your state know what's going on... a nice ftc complaint would irritate them too... I say since you won in small claims court over this matter... you should really talk with every agency who could punish this CA and really keep them busy over this... LOL Ah.. an informed consumer is a dangerous consumer!
