About to pay $5200

[newideas]

My God-son is using my attorney who is dealing with EUGroup.
The only offer they gave him was $5200. Have no idea why.
They seem to have it all: from credit card to shipping,
and they have some details, too. Of course, they are giving him
the bum's rush to settle or it will go to a private law firm
and get even higher. My question is how much higher? Some of these
threads seem to indicate $500, others more. Any experience here?
Has EUGroup stopped negotiating and leaving that to lawyers?

[condmca]

What is your lawyer advising your godson to do? Any reason not to trust his advice?
GL

[newideas]

It's really my God-son's call right now.
The lawyer thinks the EUGroup "investigator"
may be somewhat powerless, and dealing
directly with private lawyers might be an
improvement, but is leaving it up to the kid.
The kid asks me, and I think, gee, if lawyers
will deal and EU won't, how high will the
price have to go to make this unattractive?

[JD490]

$5200 sounds a little high most are offering 3500 for 1-3 devices. If they have more then that on him thats why they want more. If he were to turn down there offer and they do file the suit against him they have been asking 1000 more to settle after that. I know 2 people that orderd with credit cards and turned their offers down they haven't heard anything back from them its been almost a year. Hasn't his lawyer given him any other options to settlement. See most lawyers like it better when you settle. Going to court with you is costly and time consuming. They make more money on quick settlements. If his lawyer seems to be only wanting to settle he might shop around, and find someone that wants to take these guys on for a reduced rate. Look on www.legal-rights.org for attorneys. Good luck

[newideas]

1st, thanks for your advice. It helps. Second, he only
bought two devices (unless you count a 3 in 1 as more) He claims they never came but I'm sure everybody claims that. The lawyer is very trustworthy but inexperienced in technical matters. He is actually leaning toward not settling...the kid want to get this over with. The lawyer thinks the EU investigator is powerless to negotitate. I thought the price was too high, too, maybe its going up?

[Rydman313]

the kid want to get this over with
As understandable as it is, your godson's urge to just settle with them really needs to be thought out completely. Specifically, the potential for criminal charges at a later date by some federal prosecutor with too much time on his hands, which DTV cannot guarantee against, regardless of what their 'settlement' agreements say. While I admit the chances of being charged criminally are very remote, IMHO, considering the current climate in the country with regards to potential DMCA violations, the possibility shouldn't be ignored. Just something else about this whole mess to consider......

[newideas]

Good point. The lawyer says he would take all the verbiage
out of any settlement indicating any wrongdoing, meaning
the casework would start from scratch for the criminal matter.
I'm just curious if anyone is negotiating with EUGroup or
whether they are powerless clerks with a number they have to
stick to. Someone decided what this case was worth and that's
why the $3500 was never offered.

[Zakarian]

JD490,

I respectfully disagree with you concerning your comment that most lawyers would rather settle and make more money from settlements.

Unless you are paying a lawyer a lot of money to settle the case and review the documents, etc. The lawyer is most likely making very little from settlement. In some cases, I have found I actually lose money time-wise if the case or client is particulary difficult. I charge a flat fee to keep costs to clients down so this is the risk I take. I have had a few of those cases go for almost a year before DirecTV walked away or the case settled. That was a huge loss for me.

Think about it logically. If I charge you a flat fee of several hundreds of dollars and do the work on the case. My maximum return after time spent is the flat fee minus my actual time spent and costs (postage, phone, paper, etc.). Max profit is a couple hundred dollars.

If you fight the case and pay me an initial retainer (usually a couple thousand or so) and then I bill hourly over the course of the litigation, I stand to make much more money real dollars.

Consequently, from a business standpoint, your theory is actually the opposite from the truth. Not only would I like to see more people fight because I disagree with DirecTV casting too wide a net and bringing in the dolphins with the tuna, but from a business standpoint lawyers stand to make more money from litigating.

Just an FYI in case you didnt know the business end of this.

[JD490]

I can only speak from my experience. I should have gone with you, but at the time I choice a local attorney. Your flat rate is a best deal, but you are the exception most attorneys work off hourly rates. After it was all over I felt like I didn't get anything from my attorney except a go between there attorney and me. I could have got the same thing on my own.

[hupopper]

also zakarian could he be charged criminally after making the settlement with direct tv would that not be double jepardy? just a thought..

[Rydman313]

I don't believe double jeopardy would apply in these cases, mostly because the victim usually settles out-of-court, and also because it's still considered a civil matter at this point........

[Jeet]

"double jeopardy" is when you are tried for an offence criminally after you have already been tried once for that offence criminally.

[hupopper]

isn't that what your doing when your paying dave for pirating the signal paying retrobution for a bad deed? basically paying twice for the same situation..

[JD490]

When you settle in the agreement it should say they release you of all claims made by directv arising from this dispute. Now My attorney says they can't come after me again, but reading it carfully it says this dispute not all disputes. They could say they have received new informaiton that you purchased a programmer from a differnt dealer before you settled and now theres a new dispute. I don't know, but I don't feel like spending 225 an hour to find out if what I'm saying is right. Make sure you ask your attorneys to go over this carefully. The questions about criminal charges. Just because you settled doesn't mean you admitted to anything. Again this should be in the agreement. Without you admitting to stealing DTV the US attorney will have trouble convincing a Jury that you used the devices to steal DTV when they only have a creditcard slip, and emails. US attorney has no intrest in these cases this is about Dave collecting money.

[newideas]

I think that is the one-sided nature of the DTV agreement. Any
agreement worth anything ought to settle for all past "infractions"
and all possible iterations of Dave's companies and associates...that
is what I asked for in my thread "Sample Settlement Agreement", which
no one seems to be responding to. that is the real value of a lawyer in this sort of thing, and unfortunately my Godson's attorney says he doesn't feel comfortable with this new law and "what assumptions
may be being made" about it's implementation.
new law.

[ALittleBirdie]

An ammended settlement agreement is quite likely tailored for a specific individual using the language his/her lawyer felt comfortable with. Such an agreement, if posted, could likely be traced back to a certain individual and that individual would be in violation of any confidentiality clause...meaning its unlikely that you will ever see such as settlement agreement posted on the net.

[JD490]

Go here http://www.legal-rights.org/DTV/dtvagreementjuly2002.html

This is what you will see if you ask them for the settlment. The only things I have seen different are if a person wants to subscribe or not as part of their settlment. If you subscribe they knock off $500. At least this is what a friend showed me that settled.

[newideas]

Originally posted by ALittleBirdie
An ammended settlement agreement is quite likely tailored for a specific individual using the language his/her lawyer felt comfortable with. Such an agreement, if posted, could likely be traced back to a certain individual and that individual would be in violation of any confidentiality clause...meaning its unlikely that you will ever see such as settlement agreement posted on the net.

Thank-you for pointing this out. It seems definitely true. After the
recent posts it seems unlikely my Godson will be settling despite my admonitions. Will keep posted...