Summons Served

[Sloan1180]

Hello All, I only post about once a year and spend time everyday reading and learning. I received my first letter in April and my second in May and I contacted an attorney who told me he didn't know much about this but the way he read it they were crazy to pursue the issue because they would lose in court and told me not to worry about it. Tonight I was served papers and I'm not sure what to do now. Should I hire another attorney, settle, fight, or just show up and hope for the judge to throw the case out. There was also 10 other defendant's listed. I was thinking about trying to contact some of them to see what they are going to do. I would appreciate any suggestions I could get. Thanks

[garwood]

I find if funny that in all this time you never asked any questions about getting the first or second letter and what options you had, but now you are all the sudden concerned and wanting advice. What did you think was going to happen. Or are you just a DTV mole with a title "summons served"


garwood

[Sloan1180]

Why would I need to ask advice if I can read isn't that how every reply usually starts out (read, read, read). If you don't have anything to offer then simply don't reply.

[morgana]

I do not find your post to be anything out of order, and asking for help in the next level should not be flamed in any way. You probably followed some of the advice that was first [osted here and all I can say is times have changed and so has the situations. I woill suggest you contact the lawyer handling the Classaction suits, and sign on to that, as well as look through the list of lawyers posted around the threads and choose one you feel comfortable with. Some will cost more then others, but you should now be able to find lawyers willing to fight this with a lot more knowledger then was available a year ago. You say they listed you with a group of other defendents, so I am going to assume they have put you all in a regional area. It will not hurt to get the others to also sign on the classaction, as there is no money needed up front. You may even be able to have your case set aside until the class action is heard, but I am sure DTV will fight that tooth and nail.

You did not mention any court dates and discovery motions they set out in the summons? It would be interesting to see the time frame they are trying for. Any way keep us posted and remember, this is only the next step. You may find all this goes away at discovery. I hope this helps.

[blcjet]

Check out www.legal-rights.org or www.satlaw.org .

You will need to contact an attorney, and personally, I would contact one of the ones off of those two sites (they are the same attorney's listed on both, so pick your poison)as your previous attorney gave you obviously not so good advice. Unfortunately, the idea to ignore these letters have long been debated and now we are seeing what happens when these are ignored.

Anyways, there is also a vast amount of info located at those sites that talks about these issues, and that might be able to help answer your questions.

If you don't become proactive in this, it can end up costing you alot of money and time...which very few can honestly afford to loose. As soon as you retain a lawyer, they can start to work with you in your defense of these charges and that way you will not go into court blind, and behind.

Also check out this thread...it might also help some too!

http://www.dsschat.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120611


GL





<a href="http://www.legal-rights.org/dtv/classaction.html" target=blank> <img src="http://www.legal-rights.org/images/classaction.gif"></a>

[garwood]

Listen-
I'm in the same boat as you - if your for real. I just think there are many people trying to decide what route to take at this point and you come in here with your first post ever saying -"summons served" I think that may infuence many people who may be undecided and contemplating settling or fighting. And it would be a great ploy for dave to get people to settle and send in money.
gar

[Sloan1180]

Morgana, The papers said I have 20 days to respond. I haven't been able to find a lawyer in the state of Iowa on the legal rights page so i guess I'll have to stick with what I have got. Right now I'm leaning towards showing up and hoping the case is dismissed.

[Sloan1180]

Hey Garwood this isn't my first post ever I just don't post very often. Are you also in the state of Iowa? I'm not trying to convince you to believe what I say but if you're in the same boatas me you probably know how I feel.

[Salty Jizm]

Originally posted by garwood
Listen-
I'm in the same boat as you - if your for real. I just think there are many people trying to decide what route to take at this point and you come in here with your first post ever saying -"summons served" I think that may infuence many people who may be undecided and contemplating settling or fighting. And it would be a great ploy for dave to get people to settle and send in money.
gar

Actually... I think it is a good title. TTRK has been saying (again and again) "DO NOT IGNORE THE LETTER." and what always happens is peoples say nobody gets sued when they ignore the letter.

Lets just admit TTRK is right. Don't ignore the letter or the suit will start eventually.

[JD490]

You need to get with an attorney maybe the one you had will give you a deal to fight it since he suggested they would loose. Don't try and just show up at court like a traffic ticket. It doesn't work that way. Your attorney will have to answer the summons within 20 days. Dave hopes you wont respond and it will be a easy default for him. The judge won't dismiss anything until you go through discovery and all the evidence is laid out. If Dave only has the receipt of purchase and can't find anything new you should have a good shot at winning and counter suing. If they end up with nothing more then what they started with I'm sure they will offer a no money settlement or something like that. Good luck and keep us posted on what happens.

[Jeet]

GET A LAWYER!!!

Do not go to court by yourself. The judge is not going to throw the case out, further he is going to make you feel like an idiot if you show up unprepared.

Start today and phone around and find a lawyer who is willing to defend you. If you don't like what the lawyer is saying then find another one. Keep in mind the Digital Millenium Act is a recently new piece of legislation so chances of many lawyers being up to speed on it is slim. So don't be get discouraged if a lawyer says you should settle.

[goatlord]

Just out of curiosity, did all the people getting summons not reply to any of the letters?

[Sloan1180]

Cmooty I purchased 1 unlooper from dss stuff. One of the other defendant's purchased 11 bootloaders. On several of the other defendant's they have that shortly after making the purchase they cancelled their service. On mine it says shortly before making the purchase I changed my programming package. What could that possibly prove? I change my programming about 3 times a year. Also Goatlord I don't know any of the other people or their story on how they handled their letters. Thanks for all your replies.

[szpagat]

Are only current or previous customers of DTV affected by this or they can sue anybody who made purchase?

[condmca]

If you've received a summons get a lawyer.
As someone else said, a judge will make you feel like an idiot and expose you even if you're guilty of nothing but the purchase.
They will claim that your intent was to steal dave's signal and you do not want to argue that point. As a matter of fact, you need to remain deaf, dumb and mute throughout everything until the judge dismisses your case. Let your attorney argue the facts that iso programmers do have other uses and proving actual signal theft is a monumental task.
Do not offer any info whatsoever, let your attorney speculate on the many reasons why dave will lose. Once the case is thrown out you'll likely never be bothered again.

[slikk]

Thanks for coming forward with the post Sloan1180.

I received my first letter, it has not been 10 days yet. So I'm still deciding what to do at this point, wait for the 2nd letter before contacting a lawyer or contact one now.

The problem is that I don't remember where or what I bought in the past, it has been so long ago, I know that I bought maybe 4 things.

Please keep us posted.

[titslinger]

Originally posted by goatlord
Just out of curiosity, did all the people getting summons not reply to any of the letters?

What they mean by reply is that either you or your lawyer calls them and states your case. After I received the first letter I quickly sent them a letter denying any wrong doing. After 2 months I got the secound letter telling me that I had 10 days to resolve their despute. When I called them they said that I was guilty because I purchased an ISO programmer from a company that advertised this programmer to program DTV access cards. Of course I did not admit anything. I called because I wanted to know what they had on me and what my options are. They said that I have 3 options.
1. Provide proof that I used this programmer for lagit purposes.
2. Settle for $3500.
3. Got to court.

[medazoa]

1. Provide proof that I used this programmer for lagit purposes.

This seems backwards to me. They need to prove that you did something illegal.

[Rydman313]

Option 3 is the only way to go unless you've got an extra $3500 laying around, or you're involved professionally in the smartcard industry. I find it very offensive that they require the victim to prove their innocence, and it has served to be a motivating factor in my situation, more so than my conscience, anyways.....

[Arlodawg]

Hey Sloan, get an attorney now. JD is right, you have 20 days to respond to the court or you default. If nothing else, have the attorney you spoke with file a 20 day extention. It will be granted. That's what my attorney did. That will give you time to find someone to fight this case.
If you look over the class action information, you'll find that it's not for people being sued, only those that have paid or have received the letter and not been sued.

[Kurbo]

Sloan1180 ,Titslinger any updates on your cases???? I would like all the info I can since I just got my first letter.

[Sloan1180]

My attorney was out of town and will not be back until Monday so I will report back on Monday. Thanks for all the replies.

[titslinger]

Originally posted by Rydman313
Option 3 is the only way to go unless you've got an extra $3500 laying around, or you're involved professionally in the smartcard industry. I find it very offensive that they require the victim to prove their innocence, and it has served to be a motivating factor in my situation, more so than my conscience, anyways.....

I agree. But if you are not squeaky clean what other options do you have. I dont think that it would be that difficult for them to dig up something that would put holes in what ever story that you give them. Do you wait untill the discovery stage and find out what they really have before you deside to settle or go to court? If you wait untill the discovery stage will the settlement price go up? At this point I have 2 weeks to decide what I am going to do. I'll keep you informed.

[Danger68]

It's interesting that they said prove you have a valid use for the device. When I tried to explain to them that as a Data Security Analyst I have a perfectly valid reason for having smart card programmers, I work on FHSS wireless networks, smart card single sign on networks etc... they seemed to careless about that. I even asked them what they would like me to do about the 2 smart card readers built into my Sun Workstations, this one did throw them for a loop. :gg

[Rydman313]

Titslinger said.....But if you are not squeaky clean what other options do you have. I dont think that it would be that difficult for them to dig up something that would put holes in what ever story that you give them
I wasn't squeaky clean, nor do I work in the smartcard industry. What I am is not rich! It would be very difficult for me to come up with $3,500 to pay them off with, let alone $10,000, so after considering my options, I decided I'd rather blow my future earnings on an attorney, than pay the bullies. Either way I'm broke because of it, right? IMHO, settling with them only encourages their behavior. Maybe it's just me, but I believe I feel a hell of a lot better signing a check to my attorney, than I would by signing one to those rat bastards.................

It's only money, right?:R

[rob13572468]

Originally posted by Arlodawg
Hey Sloan, get an attorney now. JD is right, you have 20 days to respond to the court or you default. If nothing else, have the attorney you spoke with file a 20 day extention. It will be granted. That's what my attorney did. That will give you time to find someone to fight this case.
If you look over the class action information, you'll find that it's not for people being sued, only those that have paid or have received the letter and not been sued.

keep in mind that you can get an extension without an attorney. Go down to the courthouse and see the court clerk. Bring the summons and tell them that you want to file an extension and they will help you file. The same goes for court proceedings; if you have a court date coming up, but do not have an attorney, you can always tell the judge that your lawyer could not make it and ask the judge for a continuance; the judge will then work out a later date suitable for both yourself and the plaintiff. You can even go so far as to say that the next tenative date will not work for you (saying that you have court for a traffic ticket works well) and the judge will go to the next date. Since lawyers typically schedule court dates a month apart, you can push things back 2 months if you need the time to plan/contact lawyers/save money, etc.

One very big possibility that you may consider is to get yourself on board for the class action suit that has been filed; you can then file a motion to dismiss your case based on the case law that is being used for the class action suit (which i believe is unfair debt collection practices). Another possibility is to motion to have the suit suspended until a decision is rendered in the class action suit. Keep in mind that the legal interpretations are pretty open in this area so you will definately want to do some research and/or consult a lawyer. remember that there is plenty of work that you can do to help your self which will save on costs. use a lawyer for the areas which you are not comfortable to handle yourself but by all means provide help. research, and information to your lawyer. this is still your case above all and since it affects you, make sure that both you and your lawyer as as prepared as possible.

[Arlodawg]

Rydman313,
You're not alone. I refuse to blackmailed too. My summons is proof alone that they will lie in court. I plan on proving they're guilty of fraud & purjury. I'm looking forward to going to court and proving that they're guilty and I'm not:cool: