What is the name of your state? New Mexico Lawyer filed case in Illinois.
My boyfriend has had accounts opened fraudulently in his name and we have also found some other peoples information mixed in on his credit report. I tried looking for a lawyer here in NM but could not find one that would take our case without wanting some amount of money given to them. I finally found a lawyer who said they would take our case but it would not be on a contingency fee basis they would be representing us on an hourly rate basis. HOWEVER, if the credit reporting agency, creditor, or debt collector make an acceptable offer their attorney's fees would be minimal and that it is the defendants responsibility to pay these fees according to State and Federal laws. HOWEVER, in the event that they are able to recover any damages designated as punitive damages they may take no more than 40% of that award. The lawyer we got to represent us is from Illinois.
We have been fighting the credit reporting agency's, creditors and debt collectors for a year now and our lawyer has finally gotten them to settle. However I don't feel like what he wants us to settle for is fair. Since he started representing us we have actually talked to him about four times. He never gives us all of the information that he is getting from these company's. I feel like we are being cheated.
He has settled with one of the agency's that he says was the least of our problems. How he sees that I don't understand since he is not the one who has been dealing with the debt collectors and not being able to buy a vehicle or refinance our home. My boyfriend did not want to settle but the lawyer told him we probably would not get any more than they offered us. So he agreed to settle. When we got that paper work it showed the lawyer is getting $4000 and we are getting $1500. I don't think that is a fair deal.
Then we got a letter in the mail requesting our presence at a settlement conference in Chicago with the company that he said caused most of our problems. He had fraudulent accounts opened in his name and we also had one credit card that belonged to us were someone was allowed to buy $1200 worth of items on our card. How they were allowed to do that I don't know since we both still have our credit cards. I had written several letters and also talked to customer center representatives on the phone giving them information that would prove him to be innocent. This company was sending bills to an address we have never lived at but when they called me at work they caught me off guard and asked if the address they were sending the bills to was my address I said no and gave them my address before I could think of what was going on. However I told the customer representative not to send these bills to me to keep sending them to the address that they had recorded. This company has called me at work several times and one of their customer reps has even threatened me by saying that I could go to jail for committing fraud because he thought the accounts belonged to us and did not believe my story.
I had to get a credit card in my name in order to fly out to Chicago for this conference because we could never afford to pay cash since we also have three kids at home to raise. We flew out to Chicago to meet with this company. When we got there we found out that this was actually a court hearing according to our attorney. We got there a little late because we had some problems on our way to the Derickson Federal Building. When we got there our lawyers were already talking with this company, one of the credit agency's and the judge. When the credit agency was invited to this hearing I don't know since our attorney never said anything to us. We were finally able to sit with our attorneys and the judge but what good that did I don't know since I only said one sentence and that was that this company had proof of my boyfriend being innocent but refused to investigate the way they should have causing other creditors to get our information and start sending us bills that had been overdue but belonged to someone else or accounts that were opened with his name and SS number. Well we were there for about a total of one hour. What a waste of time. Another thing our lawyer never told us is that some of the other creditors named in the suit along with this credit agency had settled. One for $5000 and the other for $4500. We first heard of this settlement in the court room when we were trying to settle with another company. Well this company who was the one to blame for most of our problems wanted to settle for $2000 and they would drop the rest of what I owed on the card that was used by us and someone else.The credit agency also wanted to settle for $2000. The lawyer said we should agree and settle since this was the recommendation of the judge. We really didn't want to but just wanted everything to be over so we verbally agreed to the offer. They also wanted me to sign papers that I would not sue them since they were also reporting it on my credit.
Well a few days after we got home we received some paper work from the lawyer showing what we were getting and what the lawyer was getting from this settlement. We are barely going to get enough to cover the trip and pay court costs and maybe enough to cover all of the running around, faxing and other costs we made trying to clear this whole mess up but nothing for all of the stress and pain and suffering we have gone through in this whole ordeal. That is when we decided we did not want to settle and have not signed any of the agreements sent to us from the lawyer.
He is getting more than half of the settlement. In fact he is get 73% of what we are getting and we still have to pay court costs. We have also learned that he convienently forgot to mention that the company we were going to settle with for $5000 was not all ours. He gets $2000 and we get $3000. He never mentioned that his fees were coming out of that amount. We thought we were getting the whole $5000 but he made sure to mention we were getting a total of $10,500 for ourselves so that it looked better to us but again he failed to mention that this included the settlement from the other credit agency.
My boyfriend called him and told him we changed our minds and did not want to settle we were fine with his attorney's fees but if he was going to charge what he thought he deserved that we also thought we should get what we deserve for all of our efforts and pain suffering we have gone through and continue to go through. Well he said that there is no way we can change our minds and that the judge would enforce the settlement we first verbally agreed to but never signed any paper work acknowledging the offer. So my question is can we still fight it or is our lawyer right by saying it is to late to change our minds and we have to take the offer that was given to us? I we can keep fighting can we get another lawyer to represent us since the lawyer we have now is not looking out for his clients best interest or will we still be responsible for paying him?
My boyfriend has had accounts opened fraudulently in his name and we have also found some other peoples information mixed in on his credit report. I tried looking for a lawyer here in NM but could not find one that would take our case without wanting some amount of money given to them. I finally found a lawyer who said they would take our case but it would not be on a contingency fee basis they would be representing us on an hourly rate basis. HOWEVER, if the credit reporting agency, creditor, or debt collector make an acceptable offer their attorney's fees would be minimal and that it is the defendants responsibility to pay these fees according to State and Federal laws. HOWEVER, in the event that they are able to recover any damages designated as punitive damages they may take no more than 40% of that award. The lawyer we got to represent us is from Illinois.
We have been fighting the credit reporting agency's, creditors and debt collectors for a year now and our lawyer has finally gotten them to settle. However I don't feel like what he wants us to settle for is fair. Since he started representing us we have actually talked to him about four times. He never gives us all of the information that he is getting from these company's. I feel like we are being cheated.
He has settled with one of the agency's that he says was the least of our problems. How he sees that I don't understand since he is not the one who has been dealing with the debt collectors and not being able to buy a vehicle or refinance our home. My boyfriend did not want to settle but the lawyer told him we probably would not get any more than they offered us. So he agreed to settle. When we got that paper work it showed the lawyer is getting $4000 and we are getting $1500. I don't think that is a fair deal.
Then we got a letter in the mail requesting our presence at a settlement conference in Chicago with the company that he said caused most of our problems. He had fraudulent accounts opened in his name and we also had one credit card that belonged to us were someone was allowed to buy $1200 worth of items on our card. How they were allowed to do that I don't know since we both still have our credit cards. I had written several letters and also talked to customer center representatives on the phone giving them information that would prove him to be innocent. This company was sending bills to an address we have never lived at but when they called me at work they caught me off guard and asked if the address they were sending the bills to was my address I said no and gave them my address before I could think of what was going on. However I told the customer representative not to send these bills to me to keep sending them to the address that they had recorded. This company has called me at work several times and one of their customer reps has even threatened me by saying that I could go to jail for committing fraud because he thought the accounts belonged to us and did not believe my story.
I had to get a credit card in my name in order to fly out to Chicago for this conference because we could never afford to pay cash since we also have three kids at home to raise. We flew out to Chicago to meet with this company. When we got there we found out that this was actually a court hearing according to our attorney. We got there a little late because we had some problems on our way to the Derickson Federal Building. When we got there our lawyers were already talking with this company, one of the credit agency's and the judge. When the credit agency was invited to this hearing I don't know since our attorney never said anything to us. We were finally able to sit with our attorneys and the judge but what good that did I don't know since I only said one sentence and that was that this company had proof of my boyfriend being innocent but refused to investigate the way they should have causing other creditors to get our information and start sending us bills that had been overdue but belonged to someone else or accounts that were opened with his name and SS number. Well we were there for about a total of one hour. What a waste of time. Another thing our lawyer never told us is that some of the other creditors named in the suit along with this credit agency had settled. One for $5000 and the other for $4500. We first heard of this settlement in the court room when we were trying to settle with another company. Well this company who was the one to blame for most of our problems wanted to settle for $2000 and they would drop the rest of what I owed on the card that was used by us and someone else.The credit agency also wanted to settle for $2000. The lawyer said we should agree and settle since this was the recommendation of the judge. We really didn't want to but just wanted everything to be over so we verbally agreed to the offer. They also wanted me to sign papers that I would not sue them since they were also reporting it on my credit.
Well a few days after we got home we received some paper work from the lawyer showing what we were getting and what the lawyer was getting from this settlement. We are barely going to get enough to cover the trip and pay court costs and maybe enough to cover all of the running around, faxing and other costs we made trying to clear this whole mess up but nothing for all of the stress and pain and suffering we have gone through in this whole ordeal. That is when we decided we did not want to settle and have not signed any of the agreements sent to us from the lawyer.
He is getting more than half of the settlement. In fact he is get 73% of what we are getting and we still have to pay court costs. We have also learned that he convienently forgot to mention that the company we were going to settle with for $5000 was not all ours. He gets $2000 and we get $3000. He never mentioned that his fees were coming out of that amount. We thought we were getting the whole $5000 but he made sure to mention we were getting a total of $10,500 for ourselves so that it looked better to us but again he failed to mention that this included the settlement from the other credit agency.
My boyfriend called him and told him we changed our minds and did not want to settle we were fine with his attorney's fees but if he was going to charge what he thought he deserved that we also thought we should get what we deserve for all of our efforts and pain suffering we have gone through and continue to go through. Well he said that there is no way we can change our minds and that the judge would enforce the settlement we first verbally agreed to but never signed any paper work acknowledging the offer. So my question is can we still fight it or is our lawyer right by saying it is to late to change our minds and we have to take the offer that was given to us? I we can keep fighting can we get another lawyer to represent us since the lawyer we have now is not looking out for his clients best interest or will we still be responsible for paying him?