Please help me sue CA and OC in TX - My first lawsuits!

[Kindrox]

Four months ago I would have told people they were nuts if they said I would be filing lawsuits soon. Thanks everyone on the board, without you I would probably have just suffered poor credit the next 7 years. I have gotten to the point where the OC and CA better settle with me or I will sue. I know the sections of the FDCPA (TX and Federal) and FCRA they have violated and they are numerous but so far they don’t give a crap as I point them out and simply ask that they drop their collection activity. Let me give a brief rundown of what has brought me to suing:

1. OC will not honor my contract addendum releasing me from fees. Contract addendum is clear, it completely releases me from apartment contract if I meet terms, which I did. I have yet to meet with attorney but Austin Tenets Council thinks that I have a pretty air tight case.

2. OC hires CA to collect said fees – they call me to collect money and they do not mention that I have any rights in the phone call. They tell me to pay up or they will ruin my credit. Because they have caught me completely off guard I say I will look into matter and get back to them. To bad for me it was all said on the phone :<.

3. I research my alternatives and then send DV letter to CA within the 30 days.

4. CA sends back partial DV. I believe I have them on bad faith because they do not include copy of contract addendum or show evidence that they are entitled to collect debt for OC (I specifically asked for this too). I learned on CI.com that proper DV is the evidence they would need to bring to court, I think any judge would toss them out on their a&#036;&#036; for hiding the contract addendum because of bad faith. In my DV request I instruct them that if they list debt with CA, they must mark it disputed.

5. During 30 days of CA they send letter stating that intent of letter is to collect. In this letter they acknowledge receipt of my letter!

6. After the 30 days are over they have now posted the collection to 2 CRAs. Neither of them show the debt as being disputed and the first one shows DOLA as being 12/03 (would be correct if I owed them) and the second one shows 5/04. Smells fishy to me! Also the 5/04 report says the company reporting is a credit agency! I think they reported me to the second CRA as spite for sending them a letter telling them I don’t owe money and to get lost or I might have to defend myself with a lawsuit.

7. During (6) I write letter to OC informing them that the CA is breaking the law and I may hold them liable for past and future violations (I cite TX law stating this and I cite TX and Federal laws they have broken.) In letter I inform them that I may sue (I don’t actually send them an ITS) but will settle now for $1k and it will cost them more to settle later.

8. I have also just written a letter to the apartment complex management company informing them as to what is going on and including copies of all my letters to apartment complex. I also inform them that a good friend works for a PR agency (no joke) and she will be happy to inform local media. I intend to send management company all her David-vs-Goliath press releases!

I start writing an almost ITS letter to CA, however, I was reading today that I might be better off splitting the suit into several parts because the FDCPA violations are per action, not per violation. So I am thinking to break my suits into these individual actions:

1. Sue OC for FCRA violations because the bogus validation of debt. I think that because they hid the contract addendum this is a given. I will hit them up for damages (I have been denied credit and auto credit apps are now giving me 10% interest, 6 months ago I refinanced my car for 4%) and punitive damages. Still it seems like they are ripe for a fraud charge. I am thinking of asking during discovery for the names of everyone else they also pursued for the same fees. Also is there discovery in TX small claims? It would seem like an alley they would not want me to go down. If they settle, get them to role on the CA, e.g. “we gave them the contract addendum, we don’t know why the CA did not give it to you.”

2. Sue CA with TX state FDCPA and Federal FDCPA for attempting to collect debt after doing bogus DV. Use their reporting to 1st CRA as evidence. I also have them for not listing collection as disputed and with re-aging DOLA date on one CRA. Again make sure I ask for punitive damages!

3. Sue CA again for reporting to 2nd CRA. If I win (2) use that as evidence in (3). Of course this assumes they have not settled along the way. Again make sure I ask for punitive damages!

I would love input on my above strategy and I have some specific questions:

1. Should I always try to lump CA and OC into each lawsuit or always try to keep them separate? I am worried that since CA is in FL they might not show up for court dates, while OC is in same TX city as myself. Or should I try to get them together for a blame festival?

2. It seems to me that OC is guilty of fraud, any lawyers out there know what other civil laws they have broken?

3. How much of what the CA has done is the OC guilty off? Since the OC DVed the debt it seems like they should be just as guilty as the CA. I have notified the OC of what the CA has been up to, my guess is that the CA will continue to break the law as I dispute the collections with the CRAs. Should I wait some time before filing to get a stronger case against the OC?

Since I am gearing up to sue please only advise if you are a lawyer, have succeeded in legal action or can give me case law or legal reference.

[anti-something]

not a lawyer, but you know that

but, i can advise you will get discovery level 1 in small claims in texas, and you can also add charges under the deceptive trade practices act (tx statutes)

you can also inform the county attorney of the inaccurate credit reporting stuff and see if they wish to press misdemeanor (criminal) charges against CA.