Mark one up for the good guys

[david9041]

MARK ONE UP FOR THE GOOD GUYS

You might find this interesting , I got called for jury duty Monday and it took all day to select the 7 jury members , I got picked , the case is a Florida couple as Plaintiff and HSBC credit card Company , today the trial started . The Judge told us it should be completed by Friday .

We are not allowed to discuss the case with anyone until after the verdict , so I will post the results when were finished , so far the facts presented are the couple were called 945 times over a period of apx. 6 months , by a company named ACTS , this company was collecting past due debts for HSBC . This couple were about 80 years old , the husband was in such bad shape he appeared on video tape and the wife could hardly get into the witness chair without help , they proved that the couple did not owe HSBC any money at all , never even had an account with them , his his name was almost the same as the person that did owe money to HSBC except the middle name and a Jr. The address did not match in anyway .

The couple had sent ACTS a ciece and disist letter after about 600 calls , these call were by a automatic caller and would leave no message so it took a long time for them to find out who was calling , the sherriff's department were involved to trace the caller . After ACTS notified HSBC that they were calling the wrong person , HSBC still called about 150 more times . This trial is to be a 5 day trial , HSBC has 3 lawyers and the couple 2 lawyers .

When we had the jury selection they asked us if we knew any of the party's involved , I told them I had 5 active cases in this same court and they were all credit card company's suing me and my wife , I also told them the HSBC sounded familiar and we may have defaulted on their credit card . But then I called my wife when we had a break to see if she remembered MSBC ( I had already got the letters mixed up ) she told me "no"so after the break I told them I was wrong and I had not defaulted on their card , now tonight I asked my wife again giving her the HSBC and now we think we did default on their card . What a mess ! I think tomorrow I better talk to the Judge and ask him what I should do . We have an alternate so it might work out .

When I told them about the 5 pending cases , I was sure they would not pick me , but they did , crazy world .

Well its day 3 and I went in earley to talk to the judge , found out it does not work that way , the judge can only talk to us when the lawyers are there , they started the trial again and removed the rest of the jury and put me on the whitness stand , I explained to them what happened and I had in fact defalted on their card and the reason I did not realize it was because it was an Orchard Bank card . Here is where things get a little strange , HSBC lawyer goes over to her desk and picks up a folder and asked if I if I had also defaulted on these cards ( she named 3 other cards ) none of them were HSBC but I guess they were all owned by HSBC . She then asked if I had owed a total of XX,XXX , I told her I thought it was a lot higher but I did not know for sure .

The Judge thanked me for bringing that information to the Court , and then they started taking turns asking me if I could make a fair deciession of who is right or wrong , I told them yes I could and that I would not allow my presonal financel condition interfear with what is right or wrong in this case . Then the rest of the jury was called back in and we started the trial again . Now the the trial stopped again and the judge sent us out because the lawyers needed to talk , well this talk took so long that now it was almost lunch time so they gave us a two and a half hour lunch break . When we came back after lunch there was a lady waiting to appear I think , she had been on one of the video tapes , She was one of the head people of HSBC and on the video she had stated that she did not think that all of the call were wrong she said that HSBC'S policy had been followed , the trial started again but then was stopped again and about 2 hours later we were called back in and told that the lawyers had reached an agreement .

We were not told the results but the lawyers for the couple were all smiles , now I am trying to understand what realy happened , when I got picked I could understand why the one side picked me but why would HSBC pick me to be on the jury ? The only reason that I can come up with is that when I made the statement that I had not defaulted on HSBC ( and later ralized I did ) they were going to use me as a reason to overturn the verdict if it went against them , and when did they get all the information about my defaults , when we were excused and walking out the lawyers were thanking us as we walked past them , I told the HSBC lawyer that I was sure I would be hearing from them real soon , I am sure they are going to be coming after me big time

Long story but it sure was a learning experiance few people get .

[trueq]

The part where they would ask me if I could be impartial...I would have said "I hope the rat bastard banks rot in hell and I hope to do a jig on their bankrupted corporate posterior and scream in celebration."

I never would have made the jury cut.

Edited November 20, 2009 by trueq

[scardKaren]

The part where they would ask me if I could be impartial...I would have said "I hope the rat bastard banks rot in hell and I hope to to a jig on their bankrupted corporate posterior and scream in celebration."

I never would have made the jury cut.

LOL you can tell times are bad.... Everyone in the jury would have been thinking.... "right on"

[MG05]

The part where they would ask me if I could be impartial...I would have said "I hope the rat bastard banks rot in hell and I hope to do a jig on their bankrupted corporate posterior and scream in celebration."

I never would have made the jury cut.

YOU ARE MY HERO TRUEQ

[legal_loansharking]

Man I wish I was picked for a jury trial like that.....I would be impartial....NOT!

I would say that I would be, but I would look at myself as the hidden legal jargon in a credit card agreement and screw them in the end the same way they screw people every day. Get even for the little guy.

It's a shame I think this way. But I worked for MBNA for several years and saw the way things are done first hand. Only if the cc companies ran a legitimate business and played by the rules that everyone can understand, fine. But that is not the way things were done for a long time.

Finally, there are changes being made in the industry, but it is too little too late.

[david9041]

Man I wish I was picked for a jury trial like that.....I would be impartial....NOT!

I would say that I would be, but I would look at myself as the hidden legal jargon in a credit card agreement and screw them in the end the same way they screw people every day. Get even for the little guy.

It's a shame I think this way. But I worked for MBNA for several years and saw the way things are done first hand. Only if the cc companies ran a legitimate business and played by the rules that everyone can understand, fine. But that is not the way things were done for a long time.

Finally, there are changes being made in the industry, but it is too little too late.

From what I seen it worked for that couple is because of the jury even though the jury did not decide , us just being there made the difference .

[merrybucks]

when I got picked I could understand why the one side picked me but why would HSBC pick me to be on the jury ? (

Each side only gets a certain number of challanges. My guess is the HSBC had used all of theirs.

[Guest usctrojanalum]

Yeah I would have never ever made this jury lol

[admin]

The part where they would ask me if I could be impartial...I would have said "I hope the rat bastard banks rot in hell and I hope to do a jig on their bankrupted corporate posterior and scream in celebration."

I never would have made the jury cut.

lol