I would like to know the answer too. Anyone here know what is the answer to that question. I'll do some poking around and get back to you if I got an decent answer. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably can help you..

Sorry to here that Kellie, I thought you had this one locked up...

I really think it depends on the state you live in! If I lived in FL such as Lizard I would say ... hell yeah go for it! BUT... personally.. would NOT do the small claims route in SC NOR would I suggest anyone else try it. I've had personal friends (who are attorneys) tell me that it would be a BIG battle thats not favorable for the consumer..

KHM.. I'm sorry that things didn't turn out in your favor. Live and learn.....

Nodding, KHM,.

I'm sorry too :-(.

I'm really sorry that the lower court judges don't understand, care, or feel the need to do some research before making their rulings..

Shame on them!.

Sassy..

Anyone have a feel for how CA small claims courts treat similar situations? I understand that CA is a consumer friendly state from a legislative standpoint but I'd like to know what experiences people have had in CA small claims courts. (And even better yet, is there an advantage to filing in a major city vs. a county out in BFE?).

Sorry your experience in SC didn't go well...

Do you think his decision was based on the law??.

If not then I would appeal it in a heartbeat..

Some small claims judges are unfamiliar with FCRA/FDCPA type cases, because of this they may base their decision on other factors instead of what the law actually states..

Whenever I go to court to show up for a hearing I always bring what I call "Judge's copies of the law" that means I have a copy of the FCRA and FDCPA to furnish to him for review..

Luckily the court I use the judge is very well versed on the law as he practices private law as well..

If you feel the law says XXX and the judge did the opposite then you have excellent grounds to appeal it..

Just a thought to help you out!.

BTW do not give up!! 99% of all of my cases are settled outside of court. A lawsuit is a very powerful thing to use against someone..

I would appeal those bastards just to have them show up again..

Tac..

You will almost always lose in small claims. Heck, I plan on losing my experian case in small claims. The magistrates are not even real judges and do not understand consumer law. IT is the appeal where we have a chance. You should appeal the decision...

Picantel,.

I don't understand why you think your chance is better on appeal. Nationally, something like 70% of cases appealed are denied. You're a lot better off taking your best shot the first time and not saving anything for an appeal...

Some small claims courts ruling is FINAL, there is no appeal..

Considering the facts, I think I'm leaning towards filing in state court instead of 'small claims' court if and when I file against my 'enemies'.....

1.) Judge instead of Magistrate.

2.) Right to Appeal.

3.) possibility of higher award.

4.) doesn't cost much more..

The paper makes NO mention of appealing. I don't have the energy to, I filed this lawsuit 1/24/02, almost a year isn't worth the aggravation..

I realized what went wrong:.

Instead of filing for "FDCPA violations" I filed for SPECIFIC sections of the FDCPA, when I went into court those SPECIFIC violations I didn't have enough ammo, a little but not enough. The NEW violations (they caused since I filed) I had a boat load and THOUGHT since I was already there I would bring those up. My problem was I spent too much time on these new violations and not enough time on what I ACTUALLY filed on..

Did that make any sense?.

Don't be specific on a CA lawsuit. When the paper says "Reason for lawsuit" just write FDCPA/FCRA violations, not "they violated section XXX two times"...

Kellie,.

My take is a bit different. I think you had 3 problems. First of all, you did owe the debt and in fact paid it. Secondly, you had no money damages and finally, as I recall there was a couple of years passage of time on a couple of allegations before you filed..

The judge probably figured this was just an attempt to cause the CA some inconvenience and ruled accordingly...

Cause of action should have read:.

'willful and negligent violations of 15 U.S.C.A. 1681 et. seq.'.

To cover then entire FCRA and all it's sections..

But I'm not a liar oops, I mean lawyer :D..

On my state's small claims form you must list the statutes you are suing under if you are suing under a specific law..

I couldn't just put violations of FCRA and FDCPA, they wouldn't accept it..

As for appealing, I know it is different in every state but in my state both the defendant and plaintiff have a right to appeal the decision in 30 days of small claims ruling..

If either party appeals and for whatever reason, the case is then moved up to the court of common pleas or known as District Court and a whole new trial is granted as if you just filed the case there to begin with..

You can then have it heard in front of a judge and jury!! You can then ask for specific and ask that the judge order certian actions....like order deletion of an account listing from a cra..

This is why I ALWAYS start out in small claims and ALWAYS would appeal any ruling against me to the higher court..

I should also mention that when I go to court I usually have them nailed with an inch of paperwork and documents to leave no doubt at all..

The best book on the market is called....Everybody's guide to small claims court, this book is worth it's weight in gold and has paid for itself a thousand times over..

I would reccomend anyone considering a suit to get it from.

Www.nolo.com.

Tac..

Tac,.

I have a situation w/ a CA reporting 22 accts. I'm at the court point, been through everything, including amending my settlement agreement to "pay me nothing and delete, and I'll get off your back". I have 3 violations against them and I want to go to district court, but the courts are telling me I have to go small claims......help!.



Thanks!..

You should have ammended your complaint prior to trial....

The word is spelled "DEFENDANT".........

Somehow I don't think that this outcome is a negative reflection on our court systems.....

Last time you told us you had an attorney who calculated actual damages by subtracting tje price of the car that you actually got ($3K) from the price of the car that you would have gotten ($18K)....

Is this another CA reporting 22 accounts?.

Wow, that's a lot of tradelines!..

What state are you in??.

That is ridiculious that you MUST file in small claims, they are giving you inaccurate info..

Anyone can file in District Court, tell them I am suing for $100,000.00 in specific and statutory and punitive damages can I still file my suit in small claims???.

I bet they'll answer no then or either tell you to contact a lawyer..

Here is probably what is happening.....

Someone is giving you very wrong information and they have no clue what they are talking about..

Most court clerks cannot give you legal advice but they certianly can tell you the proper procedure and help you in the filing of your case..

Go to District Court on Monday and go to the Prothonotary or Clerk or Courts, ask them for their civil action form to file your suit in district court, or whatever that court is called in your state, mine is Court of Common Pleas and not district court. Actually District Court in my state is small claims court..

Fill out the form as best as you can and go back to the clerk and file it..

That's all there is to it, You must now be ready because at this point you would then be dealing with real court and NOT small claims court..

You are now entitled to a real judge and a very real jury, you are also bound by your courts rules of civil procedure and process..

This means setting up derogatories, filing motions, etc.... This is where it becomes very complicated without an attorney if you don't know what your doing..

An excellent book you can get regarding this is...."Representing yourself in real court" you can get it at.

Www.nolo.com.

And it is really a "Must Have" for real court..

Another thing is because you are not an attorney you are not held to any standards as an attorney would be. You would be allowed to make simple mistakes and have the help of the judge come trial time..

I have written to my judge several weeks before a trial or hearing that I am representing myself and have no legal training. I have a very basic knowledge of the law and if he could please assist me in court and try to make it as informal with me as possible so I can be afforded my right to represent my case and have it judged in court..

This way when you do go before him he will know you have no legal training and can be more able to make things go smoother for you..

I have sat in on one such case of a man representing himself and the judge was great and the jury listened intently to the man who was representing himself speak..

The judge helped the man out as much as he could like for example....the judge said, Mr XXX, you can now call any wittness or cross examine the defendant's wittness if you choose to at this time..

It is very, very helpful if you are going to represent yourself in court to go in and sit in on a real court case if you can..

Just by doing this you will learn the process and how it really works!.

I just went and asked the court person if there were any civil cases being heard today and if they knew if anyone was representing themself..

As luck would have it the week later I found a trial where a man was representing himself and actually won and did quite well. I think the jury was even sympathetic to his cause and was more able to relate to this man because he was actually one of them..

BTW, it was for a business deal with a company gone bad and here was this lone guy and across from him a desk full of corporate attorneys nearly shitting themselves with disbelief..

Anyway, it can be done if you do you homework and are prepared with the knowledge and case to do it..

Good Luck!.

Tac..

Baron!.

Why don't you make a nice batch of cookies for your neighbors, go shopping for a christmas angel. Don't do this, apologize while it's still good..

Play nice, 'tis the season..

Sassy..

And that one is spelled "AMENDED".

Sheesh. that wasn't nice...

I am going to pose a question for those who believe the courts are all powerful..

Lets say for example you get a judgement against a creditor for 20K. The company loss is now 20K, a ventured guess says that means very little to a multimillion dollar company..

Now lets say for example they get a judgement for 20k, you get pissed and contact all media reporting agencies you can, you get a press release into 2 papers and you post your story to 10 big consumer websites. Now lets say for example 1 attorney finds your story and wants to turn it into a federal case. 200 consumers who are current customers of the alleged company find it and take their business elsewhere. lets say it's a Lending Tree mortgage company for sake of argument and the average home Lending Tree loan is 65k which I know is low. Now 13m in recievables on their books are no longer there each of those customers tell their friends, lets face it.... human nature is all about gossip.

Because lets face it a jury in this country where the economy is crashing is not likely to be friendly to big business..

I just realized I have strayed from the question .....

Who is more powerful the government aka. the courts or the media?.

Just some thoughts from a P.R. Executive...

Hay they buy politicians.

Judges are politicians.

So why not judges too?.

LB 59..

No ,it's the same situation. I didn't know you saw that post. But it's the same situation, I just haven't filed yet. I have given them until Monday the 30th. But I took your advice, and decided that all I could get was statutory damages ($2000)..

So, shouldn't I try for state court with all of the caca w/ the small claims judges? The courts are telling me that since I'm only suing for $3200 (atty fees, court costs added), that I can only file in small claims.....???.

What's the truth on this?..

One would think you have the right to defend yourself. But there is a system in place run by atty's and judges and most judges were atty's in another life form..

Some judges look at you trying to defend yourself as trying to "beat the system" so that can be a danger also..

I used to be an insurance adjustor and I saw a few folks put up very good cases but the atty's nit picked them on details and one judge basically warned the person that the fact that they did not have an atty would not be " helpfull"..

Remember most judges were atty's so it just weasels wearing a black cape...

Small claims court is designed for self defence but once you move up the food chain in can be very tricky..

Not all atty's are weasels but many are...(lol).

Oz.

Http://www.call4tech.com..

Ooops, disregard that last post, I didn't read on before I posted..

Thanks for your reply! That's the BEST info I've gotten on court since I've started this mess. And I've been on the verge of court 3 times so far. The first 2 backed down. But I wanna be ready in case this co doesn't back down.....

Thanks Tac!!!!!!!!..

You may file in any court of competent jurisdiction, with regard to the amount in controversy...

Actually we did have damages, we are paying more in rent then we should be, that's how this whole mess started..

One of the 7 violations I had them on was on something that was past SOL, however the Defendent NEVER used that as their defense, so it's not in the judges place to use it for them..

A question of whether we ever owed the debt or not never came up. It wasn't about whether we owed it and paid it by mistake, it was about how this CA broke MANY laws, collecting on two different debts..

My "main focus" was the fact that here are 2 different debts with the same person in a matter of 2-3 years, they broke the same laws with BOTH debts with the same consumer. If they did it to us TWICE who else are they doing it to..

The defendents said "they've NEVER broken the law" BULL$HIT!!!!..

I have to agree with your signature, Kellie. I know I had a default judgment against me, in error. The lawyers never bothered to cancel the court date, no one ever told me, and even though the dispute was settled before the court date ever came, the lawyers didn't update the record to show it paid. When I found out it was there, and was getting the judgment vacated, I called the court to find out what was on the record. They said it was unpaid. My lawyer said the other lawyers.

Had.

Sent the info to the court. The clerk argued and argued with me, that they would never misplace something like that. I went there (110 miles away) had them pull the file, and sure enough, the update was just stuck in the file, but the file had not been updated to show paid. Not that.

That.

Would have been accurate, but it would have been better than unpaid. They just said "oops! we made a mistake.".

I was turned down for several things and am still paying high interest on a car Lending Tree loan that I can't really get out of without a penalty that's bigger than the interest (and nobody's interested in that either.).

Thank goodness, I got the entire thing vacated because we settled before the court date. But for 4 years I endured having that unpaid judgment on my credit file, and I never even knew it was there. Nobody gives a rat's @$$ about the poor downtrodden consumer - including the courts...

Judges are appointed. Politicians are elected. Politicians need campaign funding, judges do not, granted a judge must have a similar agenda to those that appoint him/her, but then again they outlast those who appoint them, usually by a large number of years. While agendas shift and change with each new administration of elected politicians, judges views usually remain somewhat constant..

My point is it's easy to buy a politician. Buying a judge is a bit more tricky...

I won't disagree with you on this point but I can't say it don't happen...

What??!!! have you ever been in a voting booth?.

I have been flamed in big claims court more times than I care to remember and ALL the opposing counsel had on thing in common. Their firms contributed more to the JUDGES CAMPAIGN FUND..

In civil court THE ATTORNEYS buy the judges,you buy.

They attorneys that bought more of the judge.Thats how people get ridiculous rulings to go thier way..

With appointed judges it behooves a person to hire an attorney from the firm that the judge was recruited from. This frames the judges "constant"view..

Lestx..

A defendant in a lawsuit involving large sums of money was saying to his lawyer, "If I lose this case, I'll be ruined.".

"It's in the judge's hands now," said the lawyer..

"Would it help if I sent the judge a box of cigars?" asked the defendant..

"Oh no!" said the lawyer. "This judge is a stickler for ethical behavior. A stunt like that would prejudice him against you. He might even find you in contempt of the court. In fact, you shouldn't even smile at the judge.".

Within the course of time, the judge rendered a decision in favor of the defendant. As the defendant left the courthouse, he said to his lawyer, "Thanks for the tip about the cigars. It worked.".

"I'm sure we would have lost the case if you'd sent them," said the lawyer..

"But I did send them," said the defendant..

"What?? You did?".

"Yes, That's how we won the case.".

"I don't understand," said the lawyer..

"It's easy. I sent the cheapest cigars that I could find to the judge, but enclosed the plaintiff's business card...".

Now, back to the matter at hand.....

And, why cant you sue again, if you are suing from a different standpoint, meaning different FDPCA violations, that you do have the ammo for??.

Nestea.

Note to teacher:.

Please excuse Jennifer for missing school yesterday..

We forgot to get the Sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it Monday, we thought it was Sunday...