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Fri 28 Nov, 2003 09:58 am
I've tried to post this on abuzz without success.
In 2000, I worked as a temp and earned $10,000 that year. My son started college and my daughter was a senior. My son had not received a significant amount of new clothing since beginning high school five years before (he took a year off between hs and college). My former husband who earned in the six figure range told me to go shopping with our daughter and use her credit card (I had none) and he would reimburse her.
I bought some things at TJMaxx and the now defunct Bradlees and my daughter ordered a backpack from LLBEan for him. There were things that couldn't be had at discount stores so my daughter and I went to the mall and ended up at Filene's.
The clerk offered a charge card as they are pushed to do and thinking it would not go through, I allowed him to make the application and to my surprise, it did.
We bought him underwear and men's flannel pj bottoms and then went to the woman's section and bought her underwear and socks. Notice nothing for me was purchased.
I sent the bill to my ex who refused to pay it because it ended up being my charge and not our daughter's. I felt since she was about to leave for school and had a $300 limit, charging stuff for her brother might delay her ability to purchase books.
I tried to pay but never had enough money. The next year, I earned even less: $8,000.
I appeared in small claims court at the Woburn District Court as a defendant in this matter, 16 January 2003.
The atty for the plaintiff tried to get me to sign a payment schedule but since I was substitute teaching and had an irregular income, and since I wanted my day in court, I held out for the hearing officer.
The atty stormed over to the hearing officer, spoke briefly then left the room. I waited through the first session then approached the officer myself who told me the case was dismissed and to leave a free woman, owing nothing.
Three days later, the judgment of dismissal arrived -- AFTER A LETTER FROM THE ATTY DEMANDING PAYMENT, the first of four they would send.
They summoned me to appear in court for the same matter again.
This is illegal and unethical. The judgment clearly says the matter is finished.
I sent what I hope is the beginning of a formal complaint to the Board of Bar Overseers against the firm.
I'm not sure why your x didn't send money to cover the charges for HIS kids clothing. He said it was because the charge card was yours and not your daughters? Nice guy
The court action was decided in your favor, so I'd call the court and ask if your appearance mandatory. Good luck, hon.
and people ask me why i own a gun....
...pleople don't have to ask me why I own a gun
So make your appearance and present the judgement in your favor. Don't forget to answer the summons if an answer is required. Default judgements are judgements.
i'm going through the same thing now in MA small claims court with a credit card co about a dispute over a bill i offered to settle on over a year ago.
they failed to show up in court 3 times, i did and i got a judgement of dismissal. i won by their default but under MA law they have another year to harrass you and take you back to court.
don't default, make sure you go. chances are they won't waste the time or money over a bill that small.
Re: Crooked lawyers
plainoldme wrote:...
Three days later, the judgment of dismissal arrived -- AFTER A LETTER FROM THE ATTY DEMANDING PAYMENT, the first of four they would send.
They summoned me to appear in court for the same matter again.
This is illegal and unethical. The judgment clearly says the matter is finished.
Sounds like the attorney's office just doesn't have a copy of the judgment. Have you tried calling them, telling them there's a judgment, and then mailing it to them (return receipt requested, make sure they get it). Clerical errors happen, it doesn't mean the lawyer is "crooked" at all.
Jespah,
The problem is the attorney himself dismissed the case -- because I wanted it heard. Now, I know that you were trained as a lawyer but I can't imagine an underling atty not reporting back to his firm.
Could very well be a "collection attorney". After my mom passed, I paid off all credit accounts, but did receive a call from an attorney who said mom still owed from one account I'd paid. I called the company, and found they had not cleared the account. Why? Who knows. Could very well have been, as Jes suggested, a paper trail error.
Best thing to do is carry through with the courts by calling.
They could be. Some collection attorneys actually buy accounts and old debts, many that have been fallow for a long time and some that were once settled amicably between the parties, and begin harrassment.
An acquaintance told me that after his father died, his mother sold the family moved and moved into a condo. Her credit was perfect but a collection agent began calling. She told her son that she had no knowledge of the debt the agency was demanding payment for. Her son looked into the matter and kept hitting walls. Meanwhile, the agency was becoming nastier and the calls increased in frequency.
It turned out that the caller was not a collection agency at all but a scam.
These people are real, however, and although there is no mistaken identity here, I have several times in the past been both the victim and the beneficiary of mistaken identity. For example, while I never had an account at Neiman Marcus -- and had never been in one of their stores -- I got a bad credit rating because of a supposed deadbeat account there.
Then there was the four or five year period when I was haunted by calls for a woman with my married name from hospitals, car dealerships and more. I'll tell more later.
I do not feel this is a case of undone or lost paperwork. First of all, the firm in on Cape Cod and the court was in Woburn, Mass, about 10 miles north of Boston. The guy would have filed a mileage requisition. Besides, I would think that all mail coming into a firm would be opened by one secretary and that the dismissal judgment would have been seen by her.
plainoldme wrote:...I do not feel this is a case of undone or lost paperwork. First of all, the firm in on Cape Cod and the court was in Woburn, Mass, about 10 miles north of Boston. The guy would have filed a mileage requisition. Besides, I would think that all mail coming into a firm would be opened by one secretary and that the dismissal judgment would have been seen by her.
What, you're expecting perfect efficiency here? Collection firms are notoriously behind the times when it comes to software, and they're often huge mountains of paperwork. Do yourself a favor and re-send the document, rather than speculating.
As for the dismissal, the attorney could not have "gotten the dismissal himself". Asked for it, sure, but not gotten it without cooperation from the judge. Your case was probably one of dozens he went to that day, and the mileage req (if filed at all - for many collections lawyers, it's just a part of their daily fee) would have been general, for a trip to court, not for a particular case.
jespah,
I received a judgment of dismissal from the court. The Board of Bar Overseers called while I was at work and by the time I got to my cell, the day was over. Will return the call shortly.
Talked with the lawyer from the Board of Bar Overseers. The way the law that is quoted in the judgment is written is confusing. The plaintiff can complain in small claims court as often as he wants to even if he dismisses the case. According to the lawyer I spoke with, since this is a collection firm, these lawyers are not used to resistance. They don't come prepared for an argument and rely on people falling apart. In fact, most people simply fail to show up which is what happened with the bulk of his docket that day.
I think that this man is simply nasty and knew I pushed his buttons and that he couldn't maintain enough composure to speak.
I practised law for thirteen (lucky number!) years -- and always hated dealing with the lowlifes in the profession, not to mention that, after a while, I was becoming an even bigger low-life too. Now I'm a university lecturer and free-lance writer in New York city. I am poor, but happy, livin' "la vida loca."
A contract under 500.00 dollars does not have to be in writing, generally speaking, and your detrimental reliance on your husband's promise may render that promise legally enforcable, even if it was a gift. Check the law in your state and "inter-plead" your ex ... that is, make him a party to your law suit and he'll have to eat those costs, plus interest. Good luck.
freiderech,
Thanks so much! I contacted the Mass Bar Association about them and they told me since I had to take a day off -- actually, since I am a substitute teacher, make myself unavailable to work -- that I could file a motion requesting Boyd and Boyd to pay me for the wages lost!
I also thought that since common law is based on acknowledgment of meaning and common practice, that a dismissal is understood to be a permanent dismissal. I am going to argue that, should I appear again before the court.
Also, Boyd and Boyd of Centerville, MA (the firm), sent me a holiday offer, knocking $100 off the amount owed. ROTFLMAO!!!
plainoldme wrote:I also thought that since common law is based on acknowledgment of meaning and common practice, that a dismissal is understood to be a permanent dismissal. I am going to argue that, should I appear again before the court.
A "permanent dismissal" would be in a case that was "dimissed
with prejudice".
A simple dismissal means the immediate cause in front of the court is thrown out but it doens't prevent the case from being filed again (which is apparently what happened in your case..). A case dismissed with prejudice can't (normally) be filed again.
Good for you!
Fichin is generally correct -- although, even when a dismissal is "with prejudice" it can usually be set aside upon a showing of "good cause"; all dispositions are "equittable" and, as the saying goes, "you have to do equity to receive equity." In other words, where unjust prejudice and/or upholding a fraud would result from abiding by a dismissal, the courts will set aside a disposition or dismissal, even after the statutory period for doing so has passed. You can almost always get another day in court; and you will almost always WIN if you can show a tribunal that, in abiding by an earlier ruling, it will become an accessory to a grave injustice. Check the law in your state. Good luck.
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