What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
Please forgive me if I am a bit too verbose. I want to include all relevant information. My particular field is politics, so, although I do study law, my knowledge is not as in depth.
Also, this truly is a friend, not myself.
My friend (hereafter: "friend") has had a bit of a time finding residence within the school district she is in. This is only relevant as there are evictions in her background and this may play a part in the culmination of situations. During the end of last year (2007) she entered a situation of "lease to own." It was a situation where she would pay the mortgage and eventually take over ownership. She had me look over the stipulations and everything seemed kosher.
During the next few months, the owner (hereafter: "the owner") began doing things like entering the dwelling without notice and taking/opening the friend's mail. The friend finally had enough and when the owner would not leave she called the police. The situation escalated to the fact that the owner was arrested and removed. I began to pause when the owner called the school district to have the children removed from the district schools after the friend had moved. The owner also contacted everyone on the friend's facebook account and emailed quite a bit of slander. I looked her up on the city Superior Court records (available online but only during days) and the owner had over 10 cases filed (as plaintiff) and several TROs filed by the defendants. I advised the friend to cut her losses and consider the money paid just "rent."
Today, the friend found out that a garnish was attached to her wages. What had happened shortly after I had checked, was that the owner had filed a small claims case against the friend, claiming it cost her five thousand dollars. She had posted ads for "roommates" at the same residence (which is one reason we knew the owner was now living in the residence). The owner was already caught by the police taking the friend's mail and we assume she used the "last known address" as the residence in question. The friend had no idea about this case until the wages were attached. My friend wants to just accept this but I feel there are other recourses.
So, my questions are:
Is it too late to overturn the verdict? If the Defendant loses a case due to a failure to appear, but was never notified of the case, is this difficult to prove?
If the owner did use the "last known address" as the residence she was using, is this considered fraud? Is the friend's record of evictions going to harm any chances of overturning this verdict? (especially if the plaintiff has as rocky a background in such situations?)
I really would also agree to once again cut the losses... but I truly feel the owner has manipulated the system and continues to abuse it.
(i tried to include anything relevant but I wrote this post once and got logged out and lost it. Also, it's gotten late.)
Please forgive me if I am a bit too verbose. I want to include all relevant information. My particular field is politics, so, although I do study law, my knowledge is not as in depth.
Also, this truly is a friend, not myself.
My friend (hereafter: "friend") has had a bit of a time finding residence within the school district she is in. This is only relevant as there are evictions in her background and this may play a part in the culmination of situations. During the end of last year (2007) she entered a situation of "lease to own." It was a situation where she would pay the mortgage and eventually take over ownership. She had me look over the stipulations and everything seemed kosher.
During the next few months, the owner (hereafter: "the owner") began doing things like entering the dwelling without notice and taking/opening the friend's mail. The friend finally had enough and when the owner would not leave she called the police. The situation escalated to the fact that the owner was arrested and removed. I began to pause when the owner called the school district to have the children removed from the district schools after the friend had moved. The owner also contacted everyone on the friend's facebook account and emailed quite a bit of slander. I looked her up on the city Superior Court records (available online but only during days) and the owner had over 10 cases filed (as plaintiff) and several TROs filed by the defendants. I advised the friend to cut her losses and consider the money paid just "rent."
Today, the friend found out that a garnish was attached to her wages. What had happened shortly after I had checked, was that the owner had filed a small claims case against the friend, claiming it cost her five thousand dollars. She had posted ads for "roommates" at the same residence (which is one reason we knew the owner was now living in the residence). The owner was already caught by the police taking the friend's mail and we assume she used the "last known address" as the residence in question. The friend had no idea about this case until the wages were attached. My friend wants to just accept this but I feel there are other recourses.
So, my questions are:
Is it too late to overturn the verdict? If the Defendant loses a case due to a failure to appear, but was never notified of the case, is this difficult to prove?
If the owner did use the "last known address" as the residence she was using, is this considered fraud? Is the friend's record of evictions going to harm any chances of overturning this verdict? (especially if the plaintiff has as rocky a background in such situations?)
I really would also agree to once again cut the losses... but I truly feel the owner has manipulated the system and continues to abuse it.
(i tried to include anything relevant but I wrote this post once and got logged out and lost it. Also, it's gotten late.)