In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Options
I'm Facing a Felony !
RugerNiner
Member Posts: 12,636 ✭✭✭
I did some drywall work for a guy last March. He never paid me. I put a lien on the house and sued Adrien Dekle instead of Dekle Drywall LLC. He is sole owner of the company and works out of his house. His lawyer got an order to dismiss the Claim even after I had the suit amended to read D.B.A. Dekle Drywall LLC. The Judge agreed and awarded the lawyer $600.
Now not only did I do the work and not get paid, but I'm supposed to pay him 600 dollars on top of all this. The Judge said I shouldn't have put D.B.A. in there. I didn't, the girls in the County Clerks office did. But they did help file all the paperwork to get this far.
A. Notice to Owner
B. Statement of Lien
C. Statement of Claim
His lawyer has threataned me with 2 years of Jail time if I don't dismiss my claim by 12/01/03. He also wants to file Discovery Procedures to force me to peoduce Financial Records, Deeds to Property and Vehicle Titles to recover his $600 fee. The original bill was $630 for the drywall job.
I talked to a Lawyer who dislikes lawyers who use unethical tactics. He immediatly found 3 flaws in the Judges decision and filed a "Motion to Rehear". My lawyer charges $250 dollars an hour, but is doing this for me for $100. I think I found a Lawyer with Morals.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself!
Now not only did I do the work and not get paid, but I'm supposed to pay him 600 dollars on top of all this. The Judge said I shouldn't have put D.B.A. in there. I didn't, the girls in the County Clerks office did. But they did help file all the paperwork to get this far.
A. Notice to Owner
B. Statement of Lien
C. Statement of Claim
His lawyer has threataned me with 2 years of Jail time if I don't dismiss my claim by 12/01/03. He also wants to file Discovery Procedures to force me to peoduce Financial Records, Deeds to Property and Vehicle Titles to recover his $600 fee. The original bill was $630 for the drywall job.
I talked to a Lawyer who dislikes lawyers who use unethical tactics. He immediatly found 3 flaws in the Judges decision and filed a "Motion to Rehear". My lawyer charges $250 dollars an hour, but is doing this for me for $100. I think I found a Lawyer with Morals.
Remember...Terrorist are attacking Civilians; Not the Government. Protect Yourself! 
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
Comments
If you've found a good lawyer (oxy-moron?) stick with him. Send the bill to Dekle and his lawyer. I wish you the best with it.
81st FA BN WWII...Thanks Dad
U!S!A! ALL THE WAY!!
I wasn't heard at the "Motion to Dismiss". She (the judge) made her decision after hearing Dekle's attorney only. This is why I got an attorney. As I stated my Lawyer found 3 flaws on a one page decision by her. A real Judge would have heard both sides. This whole Fxxking town is Crooked.
If I was able to say something at that hearing I would have been able to produce a document from Dekle Drywall LLC instead of Adrien Dekle.
That would have proved I was suing Dekle Drywall, because it was Adrien Dekle that was being defended, not Dekle Drywall LLC.
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
Have guns,will travel
"His lawyer has threataned me with 2 years of Jail time if I don't dismiss my claim by 12/01/03".
Lawyers dont dish out jail time judges do. Unless you purger yourself or are found in contempt of court I dont understand how you can be sent to jail for anything in a civil matter. If a judge thinks the case has no merit he simply dismisses it.
How would any of that be a felony?
"His lawyer has threataned me with 2 years of Jail time if I don't dismiss my claim by 12/01/03".
Lawyers dont dish out jail time judges do. Unless you purger yourself or are found in contempt of court I dont understand how you can be sent to jail for anything in a civil matter. If a judge thinks the case has no merit he simply dismisses it.
That's what I'm wondering too.
Follow your lawyer's advice on this; what does he think about a letter to the Bar regarding the first lawyer's and Judge's behaviors here? "Typos" are not reasons to dismiss cases--and that is all your error was. Unless there is more to the story, there is something unethical going on here.
This sounds like a total scare-tactic by a sc#$bag scheister. The demand to produce all sorts of records is a classic tactic of intimidation used by lawyers to get people to back away. He's hoping that by swamping you with paperwork, you'll figure it's too much of a hassle and/or get scared, and call it quits.
I'm glad you found a worthwhile lawyer. I hope and pray that you'll prevail in this case.
http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0713/SEC31.HTM&Title=->2003->Ch0713->Section 31
Section 713.31 (3)
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
Best of luck, I had a lawyer tell me once 'For $3000 we can get you off'.....I only had $1500....Lawyers are all crooks..There are no good lawyers.
Next time maybe let a collection agency do the dirty work for you...although Saxonpig's idea ain't all that bad either.
quote:However, a minor mistake or error in a claim of lien, or a good faith dispute as to the amount due does not constitute a willful exaggeration that operates to defeat an otherwise valid lien.
So did the Judge conclude it was a fruadulent lien? Is this what the other side is claiming? It seems like you're on solid legal ground from what you've described and the law in the link you've provided.
It was dismissed because I sued Adrien Deckle as D.B.A Deckle Drywall LLC instead of just Dekle Drywall LLC.
His Lawyer threatened me that if I continued with the suit he would try to get me to go to jail.
What I did wrong is charge Deckle Drywall LLC with time that I was waiting for the job to be ready for me to do my work. That is a legitimate charge but not part of a lien on billing.
What I learned from this is that a Claim of Lien is a powerful tool and should only be used as a last resort. I should just have gone to small claims court. I tried to skip a step and got bit on the *.
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
What I did wrong is charge Deckle Drywall LLC with time that I was waiting for the job to be ready for me to do my work. That is a legitimate charge but not part of a lien on billing.
Ahhh! More details; so the contracted amount was paid, but you were looking for extra payment because the job site wasn't ready for you when you were told it would be? Were the extra charges for "delays" in the contract? If a clause wasn't in the contract for such charges, you're on shakely legal grounds to try to collect the money or to file a lien against the property.
I have not been paid any money for the job.
When I found out he wasn't going to pay me I re-billed him for time lost waiting for the job to be ready for my services since I already committed myself to do the job I didn't have anything else lined up. Unfortunately, I included that charge on the Lien instead of just the bill.
He didn't pay me because all the materials were not on the job when I started. I called him on Friday and told him I needed 8 pieces of corner bead to complete the job. He didn't bring it to me until The day I was finishing up. I did the job piecework, which meant I would have to go back to put the bead on and finish it. He had 4 days to bring me the corner bead and he didn't do it. When doing piece work you don't go back for such things, especially when I was working 40 miles from there on my next job. The job I did for him was complete except for the 8 pieces of corner bead. This guy is in his twenty's and needs to grow up and learn business etiquette real fast.
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
I sure hope it works out well for you though and your new lawyer can get the mess straightened out. Sounds like he may have his work cut out for him.
it is good that we meet in the struggle of life or death.. .....it shall be life!
i think it was you who said you were good at representing yourself. maybe if you had got a lawyer in the first place you would not have this problem.
RugerNiner: I don't want to make you feel bad, but he is absolutely correct. A person who represents himself has a fool for a client. You mentioned a jail threat by his attorney. IT is a BIG TIME ethical violation for any litigant or their attorney to threaten criminal prosecution to gaim advantage in a civil case. He couldn't do anything criminal against you anyway (that is the DA or prosecuting attorneys job) but I'd file an ethics complaint against him right away if he actually did threaten to get you thrown in jail. Good luck!
Bruce
....Lawyers are all crooks..There are no good lawyers.
That is simply not true. Everyone bad mouths lawyers until they need one, same thing for cops.
Bruce
"Right is Right, even is everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it"
In the lien I charged him with Time I Lost.
quote:3) Any person who willfully files a fraudulent lien, as defined in this section, commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084. A state attorney or the statewide prosecutor, upon the filing of an indictment or information against a contractor, subcontractor, or sub-subcontractor which charges such person with a violation of this subsection,
Charging for the Time Lost made it a fraudulent lien.
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
The frustrating thing about people is that they just won't operate reliably on somebody else's timetable, no matter the effect on their own reputations. They judge themselves by their intentions (to bring you the supplies you needed); others judge them by their actions (didn't get around to it, dropped the ball, etc.). He was wrong, but you needed an attorney to nail the lid on it. Sounds like you made a simple collection issue worse by not having an attorney handle it.
Competentone makes a good point when he quotes "a minor mistake or error in a claim of lien, or a good faith dispute as to the amount due does not constitute a willful exaggeration that operates to defeat an otherwise valid lien." Your mistake was not intentional, and was aggravated by the clerks' bad advice in filling out the forms. Make sure your attorney knows this so they can't stick you with that phony felony charge. The key word is "WILLFULLY." You're innocent of that one.
T. Jefferson: "[When doing Constitutional interpretation], let us [go] back to the time when [it] was adopted. [Rather than] invent a meaning [let us] conform to the probable one in which it was passed."
Worst case scenerio: the lawyer, with the aid of a sympathetic prosecutor persue the case. You'll spend more than $600 fighting it.
New Hampshire, USA - "Live Free or Die!!!"
Because I itemized my bill including loss of time I did not willfully exaggerate the lien.
offeror;
Your first paragraph hit the nail on the head.
Unfortunately I can not pursue this after the attorneys fees are rescinded. I was advised to walk away or hire my attorney for more money then I would recieve. All of my attorneys fees would not be reimbursable from the defendant in a second lawsuit initiated by me.
Elbesta;
That is correct.
But that can not be used as part of the lien because ultimately the Home Owner becomes responsible for the bill in which he had no control over the subs in front of me.
That's what makes this a touchy situation.
The Home owner becomes the responsible party for the work done and not for the time when work was not ready for the next sub.
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.
This was held at a table that sat four, not a court room.
He handed her a paper stating that Deckle Drywall was a corporation and that I served his client instead of the corporation.
That apparently was all she needed to hear.
Keep your Powder dry and your Musket well oiled.
NRA Lifetime Benefactor Member.