peter-thompkins
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? North Carolina
Situation - State Civil Case - TRO/PI Filed.
I have recently been told that there is a temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction filed against our business by a previous shareholder (whom of which I filed state and federal criminal charges against and are pending as of 2 months ago), and that there was a hearing for a civil TRO hearing a few weeks ago that was suppose to be addressed to me by sheriff a few days after the hearing. I found out when a friend mentioned this to me yesterday. He had mentioned that the PI hearing will be in a few days as well.
The issue here is that I have not retained counsel for this, and I have not received or been served any documents that we know about since I have not signed or been handed anything by a sheriff or process server.
I also do not live in this state, and actually am out of the country for over two months where I will not be returning for possibly a year, possibly up to 2 years for business. Even then, I do not live in this state. Yes, they have to come to my state, but it is pretty simple to go to the next state to file a TRO.
In the end, knowing how these types of cases have gone in the past, I am looking to spent over 50 to 150k in attorney fees which I would like to avoid, and not go to court even though I know I can win against this guy. As well, there is 0 money to collect on him, so suing for attorney fees would be pointless judgment even if I won the civil trial.
Here are my questions.
1). How do I respond to this? Obviously there is no way to get someone to appear this quickly in the first hearing. If I retain counsel, and they find out about it, then they could serve the attorney. I'd like to avoid this while I can as we are working hard fixing the business overseas due to the financial crisis.
2). Have I been served? I did not sign, or receive anything, but the friend mentioned they claimed the sheriff attempted to serve a previous address, sent certified letter to my friend out of state (which the shareholder knows I am close to). The issue here is I have not seen anything. However, I do know from the friend who read the TRO that I am ordered to turn things over to the court into escrow until the issue has been resolved which I do not know specifically what it is, but I have a good idea and I cannot possibly do that.
3). Should I wait this out, use the criminal charges as bait or let them process to avoid this issue? I would like to put this off as long as I can and I know this guy has criminal charges filed, and we're talking about over 15 different theft and embezzlement charges.
4). How can they serve me out of the country? Publication? Multiple attempts to serve me? What happens if they serve me through publication?
Situation - State Civil Case - TRO/PI Filed.
I have recently been told that there is a temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction filed against our business by a previous shareholder (whom of which I filed state and federal criminal charges against and are pending as of 2 months ago), and that there was a hearing for a civil TRO hearing a few weeks ago that was suppose to be addressed to me by sheriff a few days after the hearing. I found out when a friend mentioned this to me yesterday. He had mentioned that the PI hearing will be in a few days as well.
The issue here is that I have not retained counsel for this, and I have not received or been served any documents that we know about since I have not signed or been handed anything by a sheriff or process server.
I also do not live in this state, and actually am out of the country for over two months where I will not be returning for possibly a year, possibly up to 2 years for business. Even then, I do not live in this state. Yes, they have to come to my state, but it is pretty simple to go to the next state to file a TRO.
In the end, knowing how these types of cases have gone in the past, I am looking to spent over 50 to 150k in attorney fees which I would like to avoid, and not go to court even though I know I can win against this guy. As well, there is 0 money to collect on him, so suing for attorney fees would be pointless judgment even if I won the civil trial.
Here are my questions.
1). How do I respond to this? Obviously there is no way to get someone to appear this quickly in the first hearing. If I retain counsel, and they find out about it, then they could serve the attorney. I'd like to avoid this while I can as we are working hard fixing the business overseas due to the financial crisis.
2). Have I been served? I did not sign, or receive anything, but the friend mentioned they claimed the sheriff attempted to serve a previous address, sent certified letter to my friend out of state (which the shareholder knows I am close to). The issue here is I have not seen anything. However, I do know from the friend who read the TRO that I am ordered to turn things over to the court into escrow until the issue has been resolved which I do not know specifically what it is, but I have a good idea and I cannot possibly do that.
3). Should I wait this out, use the criminal charges as bait or let them process to avoid this issue? I would like to put this off as long as I can and I know this guy has criminal charges filed, and we're talking about over 15 different theft and embezzlement charges.
4). How can they serve me out of the country? Publication? Multiple attempts to serve me? What happens if they serve me through publication?