Have you ever sued anyone ?



Im sorry If you mentioned what you do I missed it, expert testimony on what ?

I'm a subject matter expert in due diligence, specifically relating to M&A, anti-money laundering and the foreign corrupt practices act. Its super nerdy, unless you're in dd or high finance.
 
We sued our property management company a few years ago. We were renting a house with a finished, carpeted basement that kept flooding. The water always originated from the same spot under the carpet. We repeatedly told property management and it was never fixed. It started happening more frequently and mold started developing on the drywall. Again, they refused to do anything about it. Then we had the mother of all floods that soaked everything we had in the basement and resulted in widespread mold on EVERYTHING, the drywall, panelling, carpet, light fixtures, our furniture, and all of our other belongings. While still trying to get them to do something about this, my DD and I started having major trouble breathing. We couldn't even go down to the basement at this point because the smell was horrific and we couldn't breathe down there. We had to hang a sheet over the doorway to the stairs to try to block out some of the stench (there was no door) and had to take our laundry to the laundromat since the washer and dryer were in the basement. We asked property management to have someone come out and test the mold so we would know just how dangerous it was. They refused, so we paid for a mold inspection. Turns out we had high levels of aspergillus and penicillium which I'm allergic to. We immediately found a new place to live. We ended up losing a ton of our personal belongings from the mold and water damage (turns out there was a floor drain underneath the carpet which was a code violation). When property management refused when we moved out to reimburse us for the mold inspection and didn't return our security deposit (didn't even receive a notice saying they were going to keep it), we decided to sue them for our security deposit, the cost of the mold inspection and our damaged belongings. I filed everything myself, wrote my own response to their motion for dismissal, and we represented ourselves in court against their attorney... And WON. They were found to be negligent and had to reimburse us for some of our property, the mold inspection, and pay our court fees (by this point they had finally returned our security deposit). The judge even complimented me for how well written my object to their motion was and asked if I had a lawyer help me write it up. :D Nope, it was all me and I have no legal background AT ALL.

Moral of the story, don't let anyone intimidate you. It IS possible for everyday people to go up against a lawyer in court and win.
 


I haven't personally done so, but I did help my parents file an eviction suit against a tenant. My parents made a mistake renting to this guy who someone else brought in without my parents meeting him before renting to him. It was kind of a complicated situation as they were renting out individually without a master tenant, even though they didn't live there like it was an owner-occupied room rental. He ended up driving out 3 of the tenants who couldn't stand him, and the final guy who got along best with him didn't have a problem leaving when given a notice.

However, he rather stood firm. Apparently on the second day he was a tenant my mom came to meet him and accidentally saw him in a state of undress because someone else opened the door. Once they sent him a notice a year later he started going crazy that he was going to sue them over that "harassment" from a year back. He also started going off that he was worried about lead paint because the laundry room had paint that was bubbling and he claimed he might be able to sue for hundreds of thousands of dollars for exposing him to lead. I was kind of skeptical since I assumed he wasn't a 3 year old who chewed on peeling paint chips and he would need to show lead in his bloodstream to prove he was damaged, but I guess he thought it was his trump card.

He left some awesome answering machine messages. They were total stream of consciousness stuff. He seemed to be somewhat mentally unbalanced. He would shift from conciliatory to angry and accusatory. One time my wife answered the phone at my parents place when he called, and she rather tore into him in a way my parents didn't quite do and he seemed a bit scared. Eventually he met me (he seemed to think my wife was my sister) and I let him know we weren't scared of him, he had no legal right to stay there, his threats of harassment and lead exposure wouldn't hold up in court (and my parents' insurance company would provide lawyers to defend against his bull) and if he didn't leave we'd be forced to sue him to leave.

My mom didn't take the threats very well. She contacted her insurance company about all this, and they said that if he tried to sue them they had attorneys who would fight it and she was covered up to $750,000 anyways. And she wanted me to work of sending him a legal notice to leave or face a court-ordered eviction. I bought a book from Nolo Press on the California eviction process. It was much better than trying to figure out everything by myself as it had detailed instructions on how to fill out the forms, how to file, and exactly what forms needed to be filled out.

So I had fun trying to figure out exactly how to fill out the standard forms. We took them to the court clerk to file them (which actually cost a couple hundred dollars), and then found a process server to send these to the tenant. I could have done it myself since I technically wasn't a party to the lawsuit even though I mostly prepared the paperwork. The server's fee actually included 3 tries to serve in person followed by a standard mailing (which delays the schedule) if it didn't work. Apparently the tenant just opened the door the first time, the server said "You've been served", and dropped it in front of him. I had that book and had researched all the stuff including default judgements (for failure to respond), going to court, scheduling an eviction with the sheriff's civil process division, etc. It seemed kind of daunting but I was kind of psyched about tossing this guy out who seemed like a total nutjob.

Then he apparently got scared once actual legal paperwork was filed against him, and he caved. I doubt that he would have been able to come up with the proper response within the five business days he had to respond, and we found out he never responded and we could have filed for a default judgement. He was gone within 15 days but we could have requested a default judgement at any time. And at that point he was no longer making threats about suing anyone.

It was kind of scary, but in a way kind of exciting doing all that stuff.
 
I didn't actually sue anyone, but DH and I did hire a special education attorney to have a little talk with our school district about DS's IEP (DS has Asperger's). DH and I felt that the IEP (a legal document) was not being honored. The attorney we hired agreed. In fact she was appalled at some of the things the special ed. director put in writing after I gave her a stack of emails he had written to me. The attorney had a chat with the director, after which he was suddenly very apologetic to us. And wouldn't you know it, that director was fired at the end of that year because of the number of lawsuits brought against the district by disgruntled parents. Our case didn't come to that, but we were prepared to go there if DS's IEP stipulations continued to be ignored. That happened about 10 years ago and DS has long since graduated.
 
Nope. But may change because of the shamozzle a (large) company made of my property.
 
We had a housemate (a guy DH grew ip with) in college that stole DH's checks and cashed them at pizza places to the tune of like $3k. The guy went to jail over it, then we sued him, won, and we have yet to see a dime. This was 12 years ago. At this point we chalk it up to a lesson learned about trusting people, and we hear through the grapevine that his life is not anything to envy, so we came out ahead anyway.
 
Twice. Took a contractor to small claims court, won the case but never saw a dime of the money owed to us. Another time I sued an ex-employer for not fulfilling contractual obligations and won. :)
 
A couple times actually and the last case is allowing me to take all of my grandkids to Disney. To be fair I did suffer a bad ankle injury that kept me in a boot for almost a year and I will eventually need surgery. The woman admitted in court that she knew for over 15 years her sidewalk was in disrepair and did nothing to correct the situation.

I take filing a lawsuit seriously and do not do it on a whim. Right now I am looking for a good medical negligence attorney for my DH. He was a fall risk and a stroke risk in a hospital after surgery and somehow he managed to fall and have TWO strokes. I want answers.
 
No but when I was a kid my stepdad did.

He had a regular, 9-5 job but he did some handyman work on the side. Well, he got a pretty big job remodeling like three rooms for a couple. He would come home each night with horror stories about the two of them screaming obscenities at each other and throwing things at each other. Well, sure enough, they split up, leaving the project about 60% done and both of them living in their own apartments in different towns.

When Stepdad asked about the work, the husband told him to talk to the wife. The wife told him to talk to the husband. So he packed up his tools and sent the husband the bill for the work he'd done. The husband told him to go pound sand and take it up with the wife. So he sent the wife the bill. She told him to go pound sand and take it up with the husband.

Instead, he took it up with the judge, who awarded him most of what he was owed. 40 years later, I don't think he's seen a dime.
 
Yes, we sued a tenant about 10 years ago because they kept shorting the rent, then stopped paying the rent, and then refused to leave. A judge finally ordered them out and they left but not before trashing the house. We got a judgment against them for $28,000 but we've yet to see a dime.
 
Not me personally but my parents did on behalf of my brother. When my brother was 3, my father took us to a company picnic for a major company that he was doing work for. The man who was doing the grilling was dumping the hot coals in a pile near the bbq area. My brother being just a little kid didn't know any better and thought it was a pile of sand. He jumped in and got 2nd and 3rd degree burns on both feet. He was in the hospital for a while, then at home in a wheel chair for a while.

I remember his screams. It was horrible. I will also never forget the smell of the cream that had to be applied multiple times a day and how much pain it caused him.

I think the lawyers sued the company, the park and the man who was dumping the coals and ashes? The law suit went on for years and eventually it was settled. My brother was rewarded nicely.
 
Yes, we sued a tenant about 10 years ago because they kept shorting the rent, then stopped paying the rent, and then refused to leave. A judge finally ordered them out and they left but not before trashing the house. We got a judgment against them for $28,000 but we've yet to see a dime.

For the most part any kind of eviction where back rent or even damages are due is a lost cause. I've had someone stiff me when he lost his job and out of sense of compassion I said he could pay me back when he was on his feet again. I meant pay back rent when he was working again. He claimed he heard that I meant he could stay for free until he was employed again. He stayed for four months, and the security deposit was worth two month's rent. I ended up taking it to a collection agency even though I knew it was a lost cause. On top of that, I found out that he sold his car (which netted way more than he owed me) and was getting ready to move back to his home country.

The whole deal with my parents rental house and the eviction was where they were hoping just that he would leave and they could actually do some remodeling and rent it out again. He didn't trash the place though, so it could have been worse.

When you do this you generally just want someone to leave so that you can start over again. And on top of that having a court-filed eviction notice or even eviction order might show up on a standard tenant background check.
 
For the most part any kind of eviction where back rent or even damages are due is a lost cause. I've had someone stiff me when he lost his job and out of sense of compassion I said he could pay me back when he was on his feet again. I meant pay back rent when he was working again. He claimed he heard that I meant he could stay for free until he was employed again. He stayed for four months, and the security deposit was worth two month's rent. I ended up taking it to a collection agency even though I knew it was a lost cause. On top of that, I found out that he sold his car (which netted way more than he owed me) and was getting ready to move back to his home country.

The whole deal with my parents rental house and the eviction was where they were hoping just that he would leave and they could actually do some remodeling and rent it out again. He didn't trash the place though, so it could have been worse.

When you do this you generally just want someone to leave so that you can start over again. And on top of that having a court-filed eviction notice or even eviction order might show up on a standard tenant background check.

We knew we'd never see any money. We initially sued them just to get them the heck out of the house. The claim for damages was added later, in an attempt to make them stop and go away, when they kept dragging things out in court claiming they bought the house from us.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top