Just served in California

[synergy_1998]

A nice lady came to my door and served me with court papers today. DTV vs. Me as well as four other California Bay Area individuals. This makes me very nervous, it mentions that I will need to pay $10K for every item I purchased through a Candian reseller.

I did not recieve a certified letter previous to these papers, I had no idea this was coming.

The worst thing is, I am getting married in two weeks and have no cash for lawyers right now. I can't believe this is happening.

If anyone can help me or recommend a lawyer in the San Jose area, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[absing]

Before you hit panic mode take a long deep breath then browse through the legal advice threads. You will find lots of advice and strategies from people who are in the same boat and others who are well connected to the situation and you should find something that will give you some solace.

[synergy_1998]

will do - since it just happened today it is effecting me real-time. Let's just hope it all works out....

[rayvera]

CALIFORNIA
Shawn R. Parr, Esq.

LAW OFFICES OF SHAWN R. PARR
150 Almaden Blvd. Suite 1300
San Jose, California 95113
Telephone: 408-267-4500

E-mail: shawn@parrlawoffices.com
john@parrlawoffices.com
Contact: Mr. Shawn A. Parr, esq

h**p://www.legal-rights.org/uslawyer.html

[crownvic]

Well now you will have to respond to the summons,just get in contact with a lawyer and ask him how much it will be to respond for you.
You may could get an extension for more time to respond even by going down to the Courthouse and doing it yourself.
Have a great wedding and don't let this ruin it just take care of it after the wedding. It's a civil matter so they aren't going to throw you in jail but don't ignore it,if you do it will screw up your credit and they will get a default judgement. I don't think you want that on your credit after just getting wed. If you have no money and want to settle then just tell that to them,it will look better if you ever go to court.. explain your situation . If your innocent and have done no wrong then Fight the them to the end even if you have to borrow the money.
Best wishes on your wedding.
;) Vic

[L Rissler SI]

Originally posted by crownvic

You may could get an extension for more time to respond even by going down to the Courthouse and doing it yourself.
Have a great wedding and don't let this ruin it just take care of it after the wedding.

Yes, have a great wedding, but the good news is you won't need 596 and can just ignore the TV for a while!

[synergy_1998]

Thanks guys for the confidence and the nice wedding wishes. I am concerned that the suit said that it was filed on Dec 24, 2002 in Northern California and I just recieved the papers yesteday. This worries me since it has been so long and it is the first that I heard of this issue!! Do you think I am in default already? I hope to GOD no because it says default is $10K plus all DTV legal expenses....I can only imagine how much that will equal :(

My plan is to call the local San Jose attorney that many have recommended - Atty PARR, LLC. Let's hope he doesn't charge me an arm and a leg!!!

Thanks for all of the help guys!

[Slam_mm]

Hey synergy, just to be clear... you stated you never received a "certified" letter. Did you ever receive any kind of letter?

[synergy_1998]

Never rec'd a letter - period. Something interesting about my situation is that the suit was filed Dec 24, 2002 and I was just served over the weekend which is over 120 days. I spoke to two attorneys today and they want to charge me a $5K retainer for their services. This seems really high, I obviously want to contest the service as see if goes beyond the statute of limitations. What do you guys think? Should I pay the $5K? If so, I could be over the default of $10K w/ all of the attorney fees.

[woody2069]

let me preface what i am about to say by saying....

I have been in much worse trouble than you are in now..

what you must understand is that the legal system is more of a chess game than it is anything else. You seem to be a rather high strung person, this does not work in your favor, so i would say get the lawyer...

now

did you send the money to Canada, or did you send the money somewhere in the US.. If the transaction was made in Canada, directv has no proof that you ever had the device in your posession in the US.. for all they know you could have purchased the item in Canada (which is out of US jurisdiction) and never brought it to the US... meaning it doesnt make a damn what ya did with the device or that you recieved s/w to steal tv... if this is true, you stand a good chance of winning your case and recovering legal fees..

i am not a lawyer... but i have been in court more than some of them lol

keep in mind they really dont know anything... unless you tell them, so in any case keep your mouth shut!!

[synergy_1998]

Originally posted by woody2069
let me preface what i am about to say by saying....

I have been in much worse trouble than you are in now..

what you must understand is that the legal system is more of a chess game than it is anything else. You seem to be a rather high strung person, this does not work in your favor, so i would say get the lawyer...

now

did you send the money to Canada, or did you send the money somewhere in the US.. If the transaction was made in Canada, directv has no proof that you ever had the device in your posession in the US.. for all they know you could have purchased the item in Canada (which is out of US jurisdiction) and never brought it to the US... meaning it doesnt make a damn what ya did with the device or that you recieved s/w to steal tv... if this is true, you stand a good chance of winning your case and recovering legal fees..

i am not a lawyer... but i have been in court more than some of them lol

keep in mind they really dont know anything... unless you tell them, so in any case keep your mouth shut!!

Hi Woody -

Not really high-strung, just a little stressed over the situation w/ all of the wedding bills piling up and all.... I have never been sued or in court so having an atty might be the best solution for me??

The unlooper was purcahsed through a web site DSS-STUFF of Canada and it was sent to me in the US. I used my CC # via web site to purchase. I wasnt able to get the device to work w/ my PC - I never even attempted to take DTV signal because I gave up....steep learning curve!!!

I contacted Parr of Norcal and Anderson of Socal today. They have retainers between 1 - 5K w/o any guarantee if paying this money will get me anywhere. Anderson actually rep'd one of the individuals who were listed on my suit (five of us are listed in Norcal). He was able to get this person settled for under 5K w/ DTV...not sure what the retainer fees were.

I am wondering....has anyone simply called the DTV attys trying the case to see what the settlement fee would be w/o hiring an attorney? My fear is that I will pay retainers and then still have to pay DTV in either a settlement or default.

Thanks for the continued help and support...

[Tygh]

Woody,
You make some good points. But, the reality of some of these situations is that it costs more to defend yourself than to accept the settlement terms. The estimate my attorney gave me was 5-7k to get it to trial. And that does not guarantee a win.

I had to check my indignation at the door and realize that for ME, settlement is prudent. Each case has its own merits and needs to be reviewed by a competent attorney.

[bashy]

synergy_1998 if it's cool with you, can you tell us
the time month/year of when the unlooper was purchased?

[supermonkey]

Synergy, as was mentioned in a previous post, sometimes it's cheaper to settle than to pay atty fees. My case was just that. Do I want to spen 4-7k defending myself? Or do I pay the $3,500 that DTV seems to want? Well, you gotta weigh the balance and do what's best for you.

If I had 10k to burn, I would fight this thing all the way, but I don't. I do have $3,500 to give away.....however reluctantly!!!!! :)

Another friend of mine is in a great position. His Aunt is an attorney so she's gonna help him....free of charge. In that case, if I had that luxury, I'd definitely fight this....since no case has ever gone to trial.....yet.

Good luck with your wedding....I just got married 5 months ago myself and I bought a house. Then I got a nice little wedding gift from DAVE!!!! I know how you feel :)

[huttoboy]

Synergy

You have PM...........

[EUGENE1]

I can't believe how big a retainer these low life vermon want. You can negotiate your retainer fee. Give the rat a thousand up front and tell him he will get the rest if it goes to trial. That way he will actually work for you and not just hand over the file to his secretary and have her shelf it for months on end. Rat bastard vermon aka lawyers stack cases like doctors stack patients. These blood suckers are in court almost everyday. They stack thier clientele whereby they have 2 or 3 court appearances for different clients in the same day. There is plenty of preliminary crap before anything ever gets to court.

The vermon will do everything and anything in thier power to not let it get to trial. They lose money when it goes to trial, because its only one client and they have to work all day for you. On the other hand if through the prelimanaries and adjournments things get settled without trial they make a killing. This because they have all these stacked clients. Preliminarie hearings and adjournmants last 5 to 10 minutes if that.

Anyways you get the point.

[synergy_1998]

Originally posted by bashy
synergy_1998 if it's cool with you, can you tell us
the time month/year of when the unlooper was purchased?

Yep, I purchased in Aug of 2001 after seeing a really cool banner ad for DSS STUFF.com....big mistake :(

[synergy_1998]

Originally posted by supermonkey
Synergy, as was mentioned in a previous post, sometimes it's cheaper to settle than to pay atty fees. My case was just that. Do I want to spen 4-7k defending myself? Or do I pay the $3,500 that DTV seems to want? Well, you gotta weigh the balance and do what's best for you.

Supermonkey - I hear ya loud and clear, I don't have deep pockets to drag this out. There are criminal clauses in the ADR statute which could come back to haunt me via the government, right? I guess that is my major concern w/ settling....

[synergy_1998]

Originally posted by EUGENE1
They stack thier clientele whereby they have 2 or 3 court appearances for different clients in the same day. There is plenty of preliminary crap before anything ever gets to court.

Great point, Eugene. However an attorney that I found who wants to charge me a retainer of $1K also wants travel costs if he has to visit the court. So if this guy works in so cal and the court is in nor cal, will he have to come to the bay area often before trial? if not, maybe he is the right fit especially if he can do the work remote???

[witchunter]

You can settle with out admitting any guilt at all. talk to the lawyer befroe giving him a retainer


witchunter

[DIGGITTT]

Try this and cut your cost... www.prepaidlegal.com/info/pantoine

[supermonkey]

Synergy_1998 and Zhadum,

You do not admit guilt if you settle with DAVE...that's part of DAVE's agreement. However, one important clause that's missing in DAVE's settlement agreement, refers to DAVE bringing criminal charges.

DAVE cannot bring criminal charges against anyone. The attorney general or your local DA will have to do that. If they do that, it's a one person at a time case, not these mass civil suits that DAVE is bringing. Try to calculate how long that would take. I'm sure the ATTY Gen. and your local DA have more important things to do. If DAVE was able to convince the ATTY Gen. to bring criminal charges against people, wouldn't he have done so by now?..hmmmm...just my $0.02.

I would advise those settling however, to have your lawyer incorporate a paragraph into your individual settlement (if you chose to settle), that states that DAVE will not participate in any future criminal prosecutions against you.

[L Rissler SI]

Originally posted by DIGGITTT
Try this and cut your cost... www.prepaidlegal.com/info/pantoine

I believe that if the event which is causing the legal action is before your subscription to these people, then it is not covered. Can you confirm that is true?

[Mechanic]

Originally posted by L Rissler SI
I believe that if the event which is causing the legal action is before your subscription to these people, then it is not covered. Can you confirm that is true?

I'm sure that that's correct, kinda like buying life insurance after you are dead.

[slowpok]

Synergy_1998

I believe too many are asking you to say way too much publicly. Don't say anything.

[synergy_1998]

Originally posted by slowpok
Synergy_1998

I believe too many are asking you to say way too much publicly. Don't say anything.

I hear ya slow....the feedback that I have received from the group on this forum has been very helpful and I appreciate it.

Thanks

[DIGGITTT]

There are five areas of coverage all are separate and different. I posted this for the person (without naming) that could not afford to pay a high retainer. If it were me I would use it as if it just happened. I dont think anything has happened yet has it. so therefore it would be covered. I am not going to go deep into it publicly but if anyone has questions you can pm me or email me at diggittt1971@yahoo.com Keep in mind that this can help everyone on an everyday basis not just with the situation many of us are facing with this hobby.... I hope I answered your concerns if not let me know and I will try again....Diggittt