Anonymous Posted June 17, 2003 Report Share Posted June 17, 2003 Gods, that's an unpleasant experience.. I dunno, something about being surrounded by so much legal crap that makes me really uneasy.Anyhow, I filled out that piece of paper for the small claims suit today. They said that the sheriff's department should be serving the "registered agent" and contacting me with a court date within 10 days. Had originally only put down violation of FCRA as my claim, but got a lucky break: There was an attorney filing a bunch of stuff in the clerk's office who had to wait on some paperwork that saw my claim--and he hates the CRA's almost as much as I do. Wound up filing for FCRA violations($1000), a violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act(which apparently entitles me to treble damages in this instance), court fees($64.25)and 2 other things I can't think of off the top of my head.. have em written down somewhere--he said I didn't want to "limit myself" in terms of what I could argue before the judge--I guess that makes sense.I guess my only question is.. now what? Do I sit back and wait for court? Do I send a note to TU letting them know I've filed paperwork, and if they want it to go away, they're going to have to remove the tradelines and compensate me for my court fees and time invested? Do I try to find the magistrate and bribe him with Guinness? Hell, do I kiss my 65 bucks goodbye? I've never read of anybody suing TU for refusing to investigate following their "credit repair agency refusal" letter.. it'd kind of suck if I didn't even have a case.Scary stuff.. scary scary ****, but I'm glad the ball is rolling on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techgoddess Posted June 17, 2003 Report Share Posted June 17, 2003 Awesome Xan! Definitely keep us all posted. I'm sure your experience will be extremely valueable for the rest of us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted June 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2003 <blockquote>Originally posted by Xanathos1something about being surrounded by so much legal crap that makes me really uneasy.</blockquote>I will summon all my internal strength and forgive you for that remark Sit back, relax....and prepare! All it takes is watching one of those TV judge shows to see the biggest mistake people make in presenting their own cases. Running off at the mouth. Seriously, work on your presentation and try to do the whole thing in under 5 minutes. What do you need to prove and what facts do you have to prove each element? What law do you need to make sure the judge understands? Be prepared to give the judge a copy of any law you wish to cite and have a copy for the other side too. At the end of your presentation, bring it down to earth in one or two powerful sentences "because of the defendant's actions, I lost the job I held for 18 years" "dealing with an unresponsive and uncaring bureaucracy was so frustrating, I had to visit a shrink for the first time in my life". Then tell the judge how much you want in damages and why you are entitled to that amount.Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted June 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2003 <blockquote>Originally posted by *calawyerI will summon all my internal strength and forgive you for that remark Sit back, relax....and prepare! All it takes is watching one of those TV judge shows to see the biggest mistake people make in presenting their own cases. Running off at the mouth. Seriously, work on your presentation and try to do the whole thing in under 5 minutes. What do you need to prove and what facts do you have to prove each element? What law do you need to make sure the judge understands? Be prepared to give the judge a copy of any law you wish to cite and have a copy for the other side too. At the end of your presentation, bring it down to earth in one or two powerful sentences "because of the defendant's actions, I lost the job I held for 18 years" "dealing with an unresponsive and uncaring bureaucracy was so frustrating, I had to visit a shrink for the first time in my life". Then tell the judge how much you want in damages and why you are entitled to that amount.Good luck.</blockquote>Present company excluded of course, Cala . I'll start preparing in a day or two.. I swear, I was shaking like a damned leaf in that clerk's office earlier.. I can't begin to describe how much I hate being around that much law. I dunno what it is, but it's more intimidating than if I ran into an angry 300 pound chiselled black man named Bubba who says he wants to be my "special friend". Christ, I should sue for emotional distress.. would probably be entitled to it, lol.5 minutes though, eh? Damn.. dun think I'll be able to hit 4 or 5 violations in 5 minutes.. might have to cut it to just the FCRA and the TCPA.. will have to tie the phrase "uncaring bureaucracy" into the speech..Thanks again, compadre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calawyer Posted June 18, 2003 Report Share Posted June 18, 2003 I'm serious about the five minutes. There are ways to cut the whole thing down and still be effective. For example, if you sent them 10 letters and got no response, tell the judge "I wrote them on april 15 demanding that the incorrect entries be removed. The CRA's response: silence". I wrote them again on 4/20, 30. 5/12, etc... again, no response. That kind of presentation is pretty powerful and doesn't take much time at all. Practice. You can do it. And I bet you'll be a whole lot better than your adversary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smogtek Posted June 18, 2003 Report Share Posted June 18, 2003 Xanathos1,The first time is the worst. I actually had to take some medication to lower my blood pressure, but it worked. Like calawyer says: Be prepared and get your presentation down to 5-6 minutes. Concentrate on the BIG issues and have ALL your references ready. Be prepared to show the judge what remedies the FCRA/FDCPA will allow.That said, I will share my experience. I sued EQ in small claims for a tradeline and 2 old addresses. The commissioner gave me about 6 minutes, then EQ got their turn. After that I got rebuttal time - about 3 minutes.Keep in mind that small claims is mostly about money, but I quoted Calif law that provided for injunctive relief and showed the court. About halfway through EQ's presentation the commissioner stopped proceedings and ordered EQ to delete two old addresses that they had reinserted about 8 different times. I didn't get the tradeline deleted on that round (commissioner looked at the abstract and said "It's a court document, so it must be correct"), but I got a WHOPPING $100 per address X 2 and court costs. Not a big win, but a win nonetheless.The only way we win is to keep up the fight!Good Luck![Edit by smogtek on [TIME]1055902142[/TIME]] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted June 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2003 Thanks gang Ran over my notes.. I guess I can pretty well summarize it in 5 minutes. The outline of the steps I took to try and resolve the issue amicably should only take 3 or so, plus however long it takes the bailiff to walk to me, grab all the evidence I'll have(letters, green cards, printouts from usps.com, the ONE letter TU ever sent me, 3-in-1 credit report).. I guess I can squeeze what violations of the FCRA and TCPA they've committed and what I'm entitled to as such in a couple of minutes.Just a hard adjustment to realize that an entire situation regarding my financial freedom will be decided by 300 seconds of my voice.. doesn't seem like all that much time.. hell, the people who went before Judge Whoppner always got like 10 minutes .What would be the odds of them just, you know, not showing up? I'd REALLY like that [Edit by Xanathos1 on [TIME]1055902786[/TIME]] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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