• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Constant Power Outages

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

Status
Not open for further replies.


quincy

Senior Member
I agree with Zigner. You should not have filed suit against the utility. Your claim is against a higher being.

There HAS been a suit filed against God in the past, by the way. If I can find a link to the case, I will return to provide it.

We have always used generators. In our current location, we have not yet had any power outages (although we are now in a far woodier area) but we used to have
power outages with some frequency at our last house - even on calm, sunny days and invariably after buying a lot of food that needed refrigeration.
 

not2cleverRed

Obvious Observer
Hello again! Thanks for all the "Free Advice" you folks have given! I would have replied back yesterday, but once again, my electric power went out! First time this year! Yeah!

Does anyone have any advice on what to say to the judge? Please! Thanks!
I believe that Zigner has already adequately addressed this:
I'd start by apologizing for filing a frivolous suit when I know full well that the outages are caused by an act of God.
 

LegalEagle1981

New member
Hello again! Thanks for all the "Free Advice" you folks have given! I would have replied back yesterday, but once again, my electric power went out! First time this year! Yeah!

Does anyone have any advice on what to say to the judge? Please! Thanks!
Hello John Steed!

I read through this forum entry with great interest because I am representing a client in a similar case. What you must do is show that the power company exercised gross neglect. This is not going to be easy to do, and as some of the others posted here, power companies are hard to beat in court but there have been cases where they lost so don't be discouraged!

By gross neglect you need to show that the power company ignored your situation for an unreasonable amount of time. You do have a good case since you have been suffering multiple outages each year for over 15 years (wow!). It would be useful if you could show dates of all of the outages, the length of the outages, responses from the power company and any other correspondence you have had with the power company. Photos of the trees on the power lines are also helpful. It would be good to have a written statement signed by an arborist or tree trimmer giving his opinion of the condition of the removal of trees from the power lines since the power company is most certainly going to show that they did due diligence in maintaining the lines. Be sure to bring 3 copies of all materials: One for you, one for the judge and one for the defendant.

Once again, it will be a tough case to beat and get money from the power company. One thing that makes you an automatic winner though is that you filed your complaint in small claims court which is probably a nominal cost to you. However, I am sure the power company is going to have to pay a couple of thousand dollars to have their attorney come to court to defend them so you hit them in their wallet where it really hurts - that was smart. Good luck to you and please post back your results!
 

quincy

Senior Member
Hello John Steed!

I read through this forum entry with great interest because I am representing a client in a similar case. What you must do is show that the power company exercised gross neglect. This is not going to be easy to do, and as some of the others posted here, power companies are hard to beat in court but there have been cases where they lost so don't be discouraged!

By gross neglect you need to show that the power company ignored your situation for an unreasonable amount of time. You do have a good case since you have been suffering multiple outages each year for over 15 years (wow!). It would be useful if you could show dates of all of the outages, the length of the outages, responses from the power company and any other correspondence you have had with the power company. Photos of the trees on the power lines are also helpful. It would be good to have a written statement signed by an arborist or tree trimmer giving his opinion of the condition of the removal of trees from the power lines since the power company is most certainly going to show that they did due diligence in maintaining the lines. Be sure to bring 3 copies of all materials: One for you, one for the judge and one for the defendant.

Once again, it will be a tough case to beat and get money from the power company. One thing that makes you an automatic winner though is that you filed your complaint in small claims court which is probably a nominal cost to you. However, I am sure the power company is going to have to pay a couple of thousand dollars to have their attorney come to court to defend them so you hit them in their wallet where it really hurts - that was smart. Good luck to you and please post back your results!
You must have your legal credentials verified by the administrators of this site. You can use the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the page or wait for an email from FreeAdvice. Check your spam folder in case the email from FA is directed there.

Thanks.
 

Just Blue

Senior Member
Hello John Steed!

I read through this forum entry with great interest because I am representing a client in a similar case. What you must do is show that the power company exercised gross neglect. This is not going to be easy to do, and as some of the others posted here, power companies are hard to beat in court but there have been cases where they lost so don't be discouraged!

By gross neglect you need to show that the power company ignored your situation for an unreasonable amount of time. You do have a good case since you have been suffering multiple outages each year for over 15 years (wow!). It would be useful if you could show dates of all of the outages, the length of the outages, responses from the power company and any other correspondence you have had with the power company. Photos of the trees on the power lines are also helpful. It would be good to have a written statement signed by an arborist or tree trimmer giving his opinion of the condition of the removal of trees from the power lines since the power company is most certainly going to show that they did due diligence in maintaining the lines. Be sure to bring 3 copies of all materials: One for you, one for the judge and one for the defendant.

Once again, it will be a tough case to beat and get money from the power company. One thing that makes you an automatic winner though is that you filed your complaint in small claims court which is probably a nominal cost to you. However, I am sure the power company is going to have to pay a couple of thousand dollars to have their attorney come to court to defend them so you hit them in their wallet where it really hurts - that was smart. Good luck to you and please post back your results!
LegalEagle1981, As you are purporting to be an attorney it is required by this site to be vetted. Please e-mail Admin with your info so they may confirm that you are, indeed, an attorney. This is required of all attorneys that volunteer on this site.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
Did you learn WHY the power went off again ? was it a car/ truck that hit a pole ? did a snownado rip up trees in the area and throw them into the lines breaking them ? Honestly I cant think of a single thing you can say to a judge that would gain you any sympathy because A judge is likely to ask you what steps you took to reduce the damage that could happen from your refusal to drain plumbing . I personally have never heard of any utility promising un interrupted services to its customers , if your city water mains that your house connected to broke out under the street (not the line to your home ) , yes the city has to fix it , No they don't owe you any special compensation because of it. if the natural gas lines under the streets erupt /break and your neighborhood has no natural gas to run every ones boilers or furnaces does your natural gas co the customers who went with out service any special compensation due to freeze up from gas customer who refused to go beg / borrow portable electric heaters from friends /family , or refused to go buy portable electric heaters? As mad as you are , you are free to try to sue the electric company , but I think you will be more mad when your claim is denied ( reconsider suing and instead use the money to help with down payment on a generator system that comes on automatically when the power goes off and look at ones that are fueled by propane tank on your property since you wouldn't have to worry about natural gas being disrupted too. Best of wishes to you no matter what path you follow in regard to this problem.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Although there can be collateral damage with power outages (e.g., loss of food due to lack of refrigeration), there is no charge for electricity during the outages. The utility loses money, too.

Although I recognize the problems for consumers when power goes out, I think complaints about power outages caused by acts of nature are a bit silly. A utility cannot prevent all outages.
 

Just Blue

Senior Member
Although there can be collateral damage with power outages (e.g., loss of food due to lack of refrigeration), there is no charge for electricity during the outages. The utility loses money, too.

Although I recognize the problems for consumers when power goes out, I think complaints about power outages caused by acts of nature are a bit silly. A utility cannot prevent all outages.
The power company CAN minimize the outages by trimming back the tree branches around the lines though. National Grid did this in my neighborhood because the squirrels would jump from the tree to the transformer (squirrelacide) several times a month, causing outages. After the trimmings we only had storm (ice/snow) related issues (once or twice a year).
 

JohnSteed

Junior Member
LegalEagle1981 said:
Hello John Steed!

I read through this forum entry with great interest because I am representing a client in a similar case. What you must do is show that the power company exercised gross neglect. This is not going to be easy to do, and as some of the others posted here, power companies are hard to beat in court but there have been cases where they lost so don't be discouraged!

By gross neglect you need to show that the power company ignored your situation for an unreasonable amount of time. You do have a good case since you have been suffering multiple outages each year for over 15 years (wow!). It would be useful if you could show dates of all of the outages, the length of the outages, responses from the power company and any other correspondence you have had with the power company. Photos of the trees on the power lines are also helpful. It would be good to have a written statement signed by an arborist or tree trimmer giving his opinion of the condition of the removal of trees from the power lines since the power company is most certainly going to show that they did due diligence in maintaining the lines. Be sure to bring 3 copies of all materials: One for you, one for the judge and one for the defendant.

Once again, it will be a tough case to beat and get money from the power company. One thing that makes you an automatic winner though is that you filed your complaint in small claims court which is probably a nominal cost to you. However, I am sure the power company is going to have to pay a couple of thousand dollars to have their attorney come to court to defend them so you hit them in their wallet where it really hurts - that was smart. Good luck to you and please post back your results!



Thanks Legal Eagle 1981. That's the kind of information I find helpful. I know I need to fix the problem of having a backup power source (which I did when I bought my heavy duty Generic generator, but that wore out due to the constant outages....). This gives me something to help me to prepare for my day in court.

Gross neglect is what this power company is all about. They were negligent in maintaining their lines, which they have a responsibility to do. They were also negligent in informing me of delays to have the power supply restored. They initially told me it would take four hours to restore the power but after 10 hours I called the power company again and the new estimate was still four hours out. Had they given me a more accurate time estimate, I could have better prepared (like draining my heating lines). Also, the power company committed to reroute their power lines leading to my house 5 years ago, but never did so. After a few outages last year I called them up to inquire what was taking so long and the new manager did not know anything about their commitment. To me that is severe gross negligence! Furthermore, the power company sent a scouting party to my house to check out where the lines went down. They do this to save time from having their electricians do this so that the electricians can focus merely on the repairs. This is a good thing! Whenever the scouting party goes out, they usually stop by my house first to ask if I know anything. I end up going into the woods with them to find the problem. I am there when they send in the report to HQ, but for some reason, the reports seldom make it to the repair guys and the repair guys have to do the scouting again. I appreciate your support. I really like that idea about the power company having to pay lawyers to fight this case. They really do lose no matter what don't they?

Thanks again.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top