Posted by
Sandra Lea Wise on Friday, December 29, 2006 12:45:08 PM
I was naive enough, after watching a few episodes of Judge Judy, to believe that I could go into Small Claims Court without a lawyer, if I had all the facts and evidence on my side.
Was I in for a rude awakening! I won’t go into all the details, but the bottom line is that in 2004, I bought a Town Home from a crooked builder who had devised a way to collect property taxes from the homeowners the year after the taxes were due. He could write them off on his income tax and collect from the homeowners the following year. We could not take the tax deduction. This builder had done the same thing at a property that he had just completed. I’m sure it’s a scheme that he uses every time he builds a Town Home Community. The other homeowners folded and paid after harassment from the builder and the threat of law suits.
I held out. The builder sued me in Small Claims Court. On Sept. 7th, 2006, I faced the builder and his lawyer in court. I had all the information showing that the builder had lied and fabricated documents. I was ready to present my case and prove that I did not owe the taxes to the builder. I never got to present my side at all. The Judge abruptly stopped the procedure while the builder’s lawyer was presenting his argument, which was that " the other home owners had paid, thus it was all legit." (He had not presented any documents which proved that I owed the taxes.) After stopping the procedure, the Judge said that he had figured out what had happened and would check into it. If he was correct, he stated that the builder could get his money back from the county and I would owe nothing. He told the builder to go ahead and fly back to California and that he would call us with his decision.
The next day I got a phone call from the Judge saying that he had ruled for the Plaintiff. He didn’t give any reasons, except that he found out that the school district could assess taxes late. That was never a part of the case, but I decided that I would wait until I got the written judgement and then decide whether I would appeal or not. The documents that I had received, prior to going to court, had stated that there was a 10 day period in which to appeal.
Several days passed and I didn’t get the judgement in the mail. I called the Court and the clerk said that they were "backed up" and that I needed to be patient. A couple of weeks later I called again and was told the same thing. About six weeks later, I checked my bank account online, and all my money was gone and I had a debit on hold of $8,000.00. The court had garnished my account.
I rushed to the court and explained to the clerk that I had never gotten a copy of the judgement. She told me that the judgement had been given by phone, and that I had ten days from that date to pay the court. She gave me the phone number of my bank’s attorney and said that he could straighten it all out for $300.00. I had already been charged almost $200.00 by the bank in garnishment fees. She said lawyers fees are always allowed in garnishment situations.
I was flabbergasted! What had happened to my right to an appeal? Why hadn't I been told about the deadline to pay? I made an appointment with a lawyer. His answer was that you should never go into what he called "Justice of the Peace Kangaroo Courts" without an attorney. He said that this happens all the time. If you don't have an attorney, you lose, and they don’t want you to appeal, so they don’t send out the judgement in time for an appeal. Unless I wanted to spend a lot of money, he suggested that I take the losses and change banks.
It took two months to get it all straightened out with the Bank and I had to pay the Bank’s Attorney’s fees. And of course, I did change banks.
Sandra Lea Wise