Roseanne
Lanford,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, February 08, 2007
A lot of valuable time could be saved in America's courtrooms if judges would just read Rip-off Report! Judges assume that any scumbucket collector, loan servicer, bank or credit card complaint is a valid one. They are wrong in assuming that in this day and age. Judges could sort the wheat from the chaff pretty quickly by a quick look at this site. It would save $millions$ for the taxpayers and maybe put some icky lawyers out of a job, too. We have terrorists and politicians that need space in the courtrooms and this may just be the method to clear docket space.
Tim
Valparaiso,#3Consumer Comment
Thu, February 08, 2007
Failure to cooperate in discovery is usually not sufficient grounds for a motion to dismiss unless you have a court order demanding discovery. Even in that circumstance, you are not likely to succeed on a motion to dismiss. First, a motion to dismiss must be based entirely on the "pleadings," which means the complaint, your answer, their response to your answer, etc. The motion to dismiss is usually appropriate only when the complaint itself fails to set forth a valid cause of action (i.e. you are being sued for something that isn't against the law in the first place). The proper course of action would have been to serve them, along with your discovery request, with "interrogatories," which is a series of questions, the answers to which should be "admit" "deny" or "lacks sufficient information to respond." The questions posed would be those relevant to the evidence they will need to prove their case. Such questions would include things like the date the debt arose. They would be given 20 days (in most states) to answer the interrogatories. If they failed to answer within the given time, the court will deem that the unanswered questions would have been answered in your favor. You would then take the result of the interrogatories and, if appropriate, file a motion for summary judgment. For example, if the interrrogatories bore out that the debt is barred by the statute of limitations, you would argue that summary judgment should be entered in your favor due to the lapse of the SOL. Summary judgment achieves the same effect as a motion to dismiss, but is based on evidence outside of the pleadings. I don't have enough information to tell you whether or not you still have time to serve interrogatories, or to fill you in on your state's procedure for doing so. But, nonetheless, a motion to dismiss was probably not the appropriate course of action. Steve is correct that LBN complaints are usually defeatable one way or another, but if you go about it the wrong way, you could end up prejudicing yourself. Get yourself a lawyer, and good luck!
Jason
ardmore,#4Author of original report
Sat, January 27, 2007
I filed a motion to dismiss, but it got denied.Do i need to keep asking for discovery or what?
Steve [Not A Lawyer]
Bradenton,#5Consumer Suggestion
Wed, January 10, 2007
Jason, LBN NEVER provides validation. And if you hold your ground, they always dismiss on debt issues. Yes, you need to file the motion to dismiss immediately. Ask for dismissal WITH predjudice. Be sure to detail that they have no documentation to support their claim as demonstrated in the response to your discovery motion. In closing once again clearly deny the entire claim as being frivolous. You SHOULD countersue them for your damages. You might as well get paid for your time and expense in dealing with their nonsense, and the frivolous lawsuit. Also file a Bar Association complaint against them for the ethics issues. It will get filed next to mine and at least 100 others. They have a VERY bad reputation. They need to get disbarred.