summons question

[kzeitler]

i got one of the summons from dtv. some say to reply to it. What do you mean by reply send a letter to the attorney that sent the summons. or make some kind of court date

[^Falcon_65^]

There are three different things which DirecTV sends out to people who purchased equipment... it is important to knwo exactly what it is you reieved:

1) The first is a "threat letter". This is the first letter which they send out (DirecTV) and it says that they have invoices showing you purchased equipment and to contact them.

2) The second is a "Final Notice" letter. This letter is sent if they don't get a response to the first letter. It urges you to call them ASAP or they will turn the case over to their legal department.

3) The third is the "Fake Summons". This usually accompanies the "FInal Notice" and is an example of a summons with your name typed in as the defendant. DirecTV does not mail out actual summonses, so if your "summons" came from DirecTV's end user group, then it is actually just an intimidation technique.


Now if it is a real summons, then you need to contact a lawyer as soon as you can. A real summons will be delivered in person by a Private Investigator or someone actually paid by DirecTV's lawyers to serve summonses on people. A real summons will have dates on it, as well as the name of your District Court.... for instance, if you live in Miami, FL then a real summmons would be issued by the Florida Southern District Court. And it will have specific dates which say you must respond to the complaint by a certain date... this is different from a threat letter which says you must call their offices..

Whether or not you choose to reply to the letters is up to you, some people get lawyers as soon as they get the first letter and let the lawyer deal with DirecTV. This is the smart thing to do if you can afford to. You can get a lawyer to handle these letters for under $500.00 most likely.... If you have to actually go to court and fight it in Civil Court, then lawyer fees will be a couple thousand at least.

How to handle these letters is a personal choice, but as a rule of thumb: If you are not guilty of signal theft, then you should fight. Prove your innocence. If you are guilty, then you should consult a lawyer, who will probably recommend settling (since it will be much cheaper than if you lose in court). Good Luck.