Follow-up 5A to People being Sued

Yesterday I ended with something that may have surprised you – or you may possibly even have thought it was wrong to do, somehow. That is, I was talking about how the expense of your defense might eventually make the debt collector go away all by itself.

And that is true. But is it wrong to use the cost of litigation as a tool against the debt collector?

I could almost laugh at that, but in a way it’s a serious question.

It is, in fact, considered unethical in law to use the cost of litigation as a tool – if you aren’t doing legitimate things. That is, you aren’t supposed to drive up the costs needlessly. Now why did I almost laugh at that? Because the debt collectors do that CONSTANTLY.  You will see that when you ask “discovery” questions, no matter how reasonable, they will object with a bunch of the lamest stuff imaginable. It’s called “stone-walling,” and you should expect it – it’s standard in the debt collector’s playbook.

But you won’t be stone-walling. You will be legitimately probing their case for weaknesses, and chances are extremely good that you will find some, too. So at the same time you’re making the suit unprofitable for them you are also making it much more likely that you win it outright.

And it is likely that you win if it goes so far.

It goes back to the “factory” approach the debt collectors take. I’d be shocked to hear that the lawyer on the other side of your case has spent twenty seconds looking at anything in your case before going to court. Why should he? Ninety-seven out of a hundred cases never get litigated because the defendants give up. It doesn’t make sense to “waste” time on a case like that, and they almost never do. And because of the way the debt selling industry works, in order for them to get what they need, it would really take more time than they’ve got. Upshot? They rarely have what they need, and they’re rarely willing to get it if you push them for it.

Again, they aren’t worried about losing. They’re worried about spending time.

If you keep pushing, you’ll almost always win.

Almost Always??

Hmmm. So do you notice I keep saying things like “rarely” and “almost always” or “almost never?”

One YouTube commenter accused me of “waffling” – he liked the people who make guarantees better and figures I don’t know enough if I can’t make guarantees, too.

But that is actually ridiculous. The law is a process – usually pretty rigorous, and usually actually “honest” if not truly fair.  It’s a contest played by many, many participants. Some (on both sides) play harder than others, and judges do not always pay close attention or do the right thing. I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

What I can say for sure is that if you do, and keep doing, the right things, you will make suing you a money-losing proposition.  This makes it much less likely that they will keep doing it.

I can say for sure that a large majority of debt buyers – very nearly all of them, in fact – start the lawsuit against you without having what they would need to win in their possession. And they either cannot, or will not, do what it takes to get it. Could they, in theory? Yes they could. But I am not aware of a single time a debt buyer did what it took to deserve to win. Sometimes they do win if the judge isn’t paying attention or the deck is stacked (as it is in Massachusetts small claims courts), but this is rare if you fight, and it’s much rarer for them to win legitimately.

I will have guarantees about our products, of course, but you should know that if the debt collector is willing to do what it takes to win, and if the stuff is there, then it probably should win, and it probably will. That almost never happens, so you should probably win and probably will win, but there’s always a chance of some fluke happening. We can’t guarantee that you will win.

It’s important that you know about that chance, as small as it is, because it will encourage you to do things that protect you against that possibility. We do have some suggestions for that, too.

But that’s all talking about something with such a small chance of happening that I wonder sometimes whether I shouldn’t just say it won’t.

Remember, the debt collectors are only interested in making money – they don’t care about you or your suit at all (except as a way to make money). We can help you make sure they lose money by suing you. And we can make sure that if they don’t have what they need, which they almost never do, you can find out and know what to do about that. We can make sure you deserve to win, in other words.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about one more thing that makes people nervous, and then we’ll move on to tell you how we can help and what we offer.

Stay hopeful,

Ken