In a civil lawsuit, the victim brings a case for money damages against the offender or a third party for causing physical or emotional injuries. Regardless of the outcome of any criminal prosecution, or even if there was no prosecution, crime victims can file civil lawsuits against offenders and other responsible parties. The person who starts the lawsuit is called the plaintiff, and the person or entity against whom the case is brought is called the defendant. Unlike a criminal case, in which the central question is whether the offender is guilty of the crime, in a civil lawsuit, the question is whether an offender or a third party is responsible for the injuries suffered.
In a civil suit, unlike a criminal prosecution, the plaintiff is responsible for the cost of litigation. Most attorneys handle victim cases on a contingency basis, which means that the attorney fee is deducted from the final award. This allows individuals to have access to the civil justice system without the need to finance the case themselves. If the case is not successful, the victim usually pays nothing. In a civil suit, the attorney directly represents the victim’s interests and the victim has greater control in case decision-making than in a criminal prosecution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vvhBI63BO0
Above is a Youtube link showing an interview with a man who had his door beaten down by a SWAT Team ordered by The Department of Education to collect some defaulted student loans. Better watch this one. It is disappearing from the Internet pretty fast for some reason. The father of three offers some friendly advice to the viewers at one point-if you don't want your door kicked down at six in the morning by men armed with shotguns, and your three children traumatized for life, pay your student loans.
People keep saying that his wife owed the money and didn't even live there, as if that makes it worse-this would not have been acceptable even if she'd been there, even if there were no children.
I am sure a lot of people have defaulted on student loans. The US Government allowed the outsourcing of all the jobs overseas, many of them to places where education is ridiculously cheap or the government pays for education if you pass the admissions test. It's as if these shortsighted fools thought they could have their cake and eat it too. In fact, that is exactly what they thought.
Let me explain-If you eat your cake, you no longer have your cake, and hence have none for later. The tax base was sacrificed for special interests, and now the tax base is no longer there. Capiche? I hope that helps.
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Lori's Blog:On August 14, 1982 we were married. He was 20. I was 22. We have been together 28 years, and have worked hard to make a living, and raise a family. We had to use credit cards to help make ends meet. Having children you can count on unexpected expenses. The credit cards were manageable. We just paid the minimum payment until we could send more. We knew that charging things was not the best thing to do, but what do you do? They helped us. In 1986 I was offered a job with a large company. My family prospered for 18+ years in Scranton, PA. I can't say we were rich, but we were not struggling. There was always a little something left over. We thought we made it. In 2003, the company I was with announced they were closing the Scranton location. They gave me an opportunity to relocate to the Greensboro office in North Carolina. My family agreed to leave our apartment and move. My husband agreed to leave his job in order for me to work towards my twentieth year with this company. In August of 2003 we moved. Everything was falling into place, life was good. In October of 2004 we finally built a home. It was modest, but it was all ours. We had saved some money for the down payment. Our credit was good. The builder was anxious to start. The "American Dream" was now a reality. The bank sent their appraiser out before the loan was approved. All the legalities were completed. The home and property were valued greater then the actual loan. We moved in. We got a copy of the appraisal and noticed the examiner indicated a paved driveway existed as well as a dishwasher. This gave the property more value. Although we were concerned, we dismissed it. We were making the monthly payment rather easily. We gardened, landscaped, and planted trees and flowers. This is where we would retire. Until November of 2005. The company told us the job "my" job was being outsourced to India.
We were lived in this home for a year & a half. In that year if you can picture it, there was a white Magnolia tree outside the master bedroom window; on your far right. We wanted to wake up and see pure white blooms and smell sweet perfume rolling in through the open windows. On the far left, there was a Weeping Willow tree for the lazy days of summer. We planned on sitting under it after a hard day at work; actually, we had a couple of ideas for it. It was a dream comes true. Nothing could go wrong. Everything we had is all that we wanted. When my job was outsourced to, India my husband and I tried to make a go of it. He was working as a maintenance man for a large university. I was sure I would have no problem getting another job. We decided we’ve worked too hard to just give up. As the months rolled by my unemployment was running out. My husband started getting worried and we started to argue. It was out of fear of course but emotions running high are just not the best way to live. One day the phone rang. I was offered a job at Wal-Mart as a manager. We thought”Maybe we made it”. We didn’t! On December 3rd 2006, we packed up our belongings and drove back to Pennsylvania. All of our things went into my mother in laws garage, except for a few personal items or course. Don’t get me wrong thank God we have her to help us! But, this was a hard pill to swallow.
We got a realtor involved. It wouldn’t take long to sell our beautiful brand new home. We would save a little money. Then when the home sold we would rent an apartment until we figured out our next step. In 2006 the housing market tanked! How much more could we stand?
How To Make Money Defaulting On Your Credit Cards
On many levels, the situation with lenders and borrowers has gone beyond absurdity.
Borrowers happily spend themselves into a deep pit. Lenders keep interest rates so high that those in trouble can never repay their debt, as much as they might want to. Lenders are happy with getting minimum payments forever.
This unhappy cycle just keeps working its way through until the borrower defaults and gets put into the collection system. Once there, the borrower is best advised to ignore collection calls and letters, until they can scare up some cash to try to make a deal.
I have a client, a widow, who came to us with about $30,000 in credit card bills. She was actually liquidating furniture and heirlooms, trying to sell her dead husband’s gun collection to pay minimum payments on her cards. Her real estate taxes had been unpaid for two years, and she was behind on her mortgage, but she was doing everything she could to keep the credit cards current. She had been doing so for four years since her husband died. When we met, she was not even sure if her name or her husband’s, or both, appeared on the bills.
Like many people, she had never even thought of the idea of not paying. She always paid her bills. Also, like many people, she would never have filed a bankruptcy case under any circumstances.
As a result, she was very near the mental edge. I told her that if she kept her present plan, she would wind up broke, and that her really important bills, food, real estate taxes, mortgage and utilities had to come first. Though she wanted to pay the credit card companies, it was simply a mathematical impossibility.
Over time, she accepted this fact, and I gave her basic instructions, don’t talk to collectors, give me her mail, I would make deals or eventually litigate the claims to resolution. Everything seemed fine.
A strange twist then developed. She did not have caller ID. Also, she had family and was afraid that if she missed a call, she would miss something big. So she answered the phone, every time it rang. She tried to explain that she had a lawyer. She was a clerical worker, so she could really type. Most collectors she spoke to were courteous and polite.
Some were not. She got calls during which she was abused, called names and threatened with lawsuits and even jail. She dutifully typed out the details of these calls, the time and what was said, and turned them over to me.
I am not all that interested in suing collectors. I am out to make deals or litigate and get my clients’ finances straightened out.
But these collectors were making it hard not to take action. I am very good at holding collectors accountable for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Each time she gave us the details of a violation, I filed a suit on her behalf. Each time the suit had no defenses. Often the underlying claim can be worked out in the context of resolving these suits. While the monetary details of the lawsuits are irrelevant, she might be the only client I ever have who will recover from the credit card companies and their collection agents almost as much as she borrowed.
A borrower who wants to pay but cannot, a lender who wants money but does not care how it goes about collecting it and the interplay of consumer protection statutes, lead to a result more absurd than could be imagined.
