there was no way to get money. court already awarded me restitution so no need for lawsuit. guy had no money. I got nothing but my banged up car back. stripped all the go-fast parts and installed them on a second 240z. seriously out of pocket. I managed to find out where he lived and considered more, uh.. traditionally italian methods of 'restitution'...

Nice.


but now I'm scared of the DA restitution solution...

Years ago, my Nissan was clobbered by a drunken hit & run driver late at night.  I managed to get her license number--which I gave to the police--and I thought she was in big, big trouble.  Nope, she got off with a suspended license.     A slap on the wrist would've hurt more. 

Don't expect the DA to be your advocate.  My car was totalled but they didn't even bother with restitution.  All they cared about was adjudicating the case as quickly as possible (plea bargain) to make way for the next.    

They even felt sorry for that piece of white trash the woman as she was a parttime cashier for a grocery store.  I was unemployed and now carless but nobody asked about me. 

I was given the opportunity to speak to the court prior to final sentencing but the lady judge cut me off when my anger rose to the surface.      

  My brother sued in small claims over damage to his wife's car (done by an uninsured driver).  When they didn't pay, he was able to take the court's judgement and garnish (not garner, garnish )  their wages.  He could only get a little bit each time, and re-file each pay period, but he did get most of the money back.  I gather it was a bit of work but he felt it was worth it to make them "pay," both figuratively and literally.

  That was in Ohio, but I'm sure there's a process for it in good ol' MA.  A bit of research might turn up the process, or you could contact a lawyer.  But a lawyer will definitely cost money without a guarantee of a return.

  Good luck; I'm rooting for you.  Your story made me seethe and with bodily harm upon the other guy.  I was imagining the scene from Big Lebowski where the guy with the corvette says "YOU HURT MY CAR, NOW I KILL YOUR CAR!!" and then you going midevil with a crowbar on that POS Nissan.

-David

Winning a settlement is only the beginning of the process once you have been awarded a settlement nothing is in place to make them pay and since you have already won you cant take them to court again. The award is a license to hunt at that point if they do not pay you may begin the process of garnishment, sale of debt to a debt collection agency,,,,,etc. all those nifty ways of collecting on a debt. My best advice is that you seek the services of an attorney who specializes in debt collection immediately upon not receiving any money. The beauty of collection is that as the cost of collecting the debt increases i.e. attorneys fees and garnishment filings they may be added to the original debt.

Quote from: dculberson on October 20, 2006, 08:14:12 AM
  My brother sued in small claims over damage to his wife's car (done by an uninsured driver).  When they didn't pay, he was able to take the court's judgement and garnish (not garner, garnish )  their wages.  He could only get a little bit each time, and re-file each pay period, but he did get most of the money back.  I gather it was a bit of work but he felt it was worth it to make them "pay," both figuratively and literally.

  That was in Ohio, but I'm sure there's a process for it in good ol' MA.  A bit of research might turn up the process, or you could contact a lawyer.  But a lawyer will definitely cost money without a guarantee of a return.

  Good luck; I'm rooting for you.  Your story made me seethe and with bodily harm upon the other guy.  I was imagining the scene from Big Lebowski where the guy with the corvette says "YOU HURT MY CAR, NOW I KILL YOUR CAR!!" and then you going midevil with a crowbar on that POS Nissan.

-David

Man ... I thought I was the only one that saw the movie Big Lebowski ...
OK Fine I was the only one that enjoyed it ... OK fine.
The Private detective following the guy in that 62 VW beetle and the guy going "It kinda held the room together" ... and "the Chinaman peed on my rug" ... priceless.
Cool.
Srinath.

Thankz dude.

How would I go about garnishing wages after I win the settlement?

You use a bat or a small calibre weapon.

Quote from: makenzie71 on October 22, 2006, 07:32:43 PM
You use a bat or a small calibre weapon.

I'd LOVE to, but I'm not that kind of person.

It's going to be hard to do any other way.

Quote from: annguyen1981 on October 22, 2006, 06:56:05 PM
Thankz dude.

How would I go about garnishing wages after I win the settlement?

I think you may be Able to Put a Lien on their Property too. :dunno_white:If you Know the Details of everything you could make their Life a Living Hell.

if I understand it propperly only state funded official stuff can place liens on properties...you can't place a lien over anything not in your possession.

And garnishing wages isn't very easy.  Forcing payment is impossible.  This is why taking them to court isn't going to be much of anything.

Quote from: makenzie71 on October 22, 2006, 07:38:13 PM
if I understand it propperly only state funded official stuff can place liens on properties...you can't place a lien over anything not in your possession.

And garnishing wages isn't very easy.  Forcing payment is impossible.  This is why taking them to court isn't going to be much of anything.

Actually, repair or contract work can often result in a temporary mechanics/contractors lien against the property.  Not really the same thing, but if you have a judgement against someone, and they cannot pay, you should be able to go after their property (car/house/etc).

Quote from: annguyen1981 on October 22, 2006, 07:33:55 PM

Quote from: makenzie71 on October 22, 2006, 07:32:43 PM
You use a bat or a small calibre weapon.

I'd LOVE to, but I'm not that kind of person.

Sucks. But I am. I need a roadtrip to get the hell outta here. Christmas break is coming up.

I went to the @$$hole's arrainment (sp) today.  He originally was gonna plead guilty and pay 100% of the restitution, but when he was informed by the judge that we was going to loose his license, he said he wasn't informed of that and would like to plead innocent and hire a private lawyer.

The rescheduled court date is 12-05-06.

On another note...  I can't remember here who brought this up (and I'm too lazy to go back through the past pages)...  His g/f is really cute...   The bad part is that if she's with him, she is probably as immature as he is.  No thankz.

Quote from: annguyen1981 on November 16, 2006, 04:17:59 PM

On another note...  I can't remember here who brought this up (and I'm too lazy to go back through the past pages)...  His g/f is really cute...   The bad part is that if she's with him, she is probably as immature as he is.  No thankz.

Strewth mate you don't have to marry her, just get your pound of flesh (so to speak) out of her 

eh...  one cannot know what one like that would carry in terms of diseases.



I'm thinking of going to the D.A. and asking them to kinda settle.  Here's my idea:

Asswipe pays 100% of my restitution bill.
Asswipe doesn't need to pay for a blood-sucking lawyer
Asswipe instead pays an additional $365 to the MSF organization that I attended as a donation

I figure that since I paid $255 for the beginners and $110 for the expert, and because that saved my hide since they taught me how to survive...  Asswipe can donate that amount to the organization to help other riders.

What do you guys think of this plan?  Part of me wants him to go to jail (which is a possibility...  not less than 6 months, not more than 5 years...) but if he does, my tax dollars will still be paying to feed Asswipe.

Don't worry About Diseases thats what Penicillin and Ajax is for.

If you've ever been to a jail, even a medium security jail, you will know that your tax dollars will be going to making his time there suck.  You hear stories about TV and Slumber parties but I can assure you, it's a depressing place. 

You can always talk to the DA and ask them to apply a conditional sentence in terms of "pay the restitution to your victim by a certain date or else serve a comparable amount of time in jail".  For some of these people that's enough to scare them into finding the money right away.  In Canada they do that for deadbeat dads.  Pay your child support by this date or else spend 5 days in jail.  I once had to go and arrest a guy for not paying $3000 in back support payments.  I showed up at the door, drove him to a bank machine and he used four bank cards to get the cash.  THAT'S how much he didn't want to go to jail.

Other than that, using a debt collection agency is probably a great idea too.  They will take a percentage of the winnings but they know the in's and out's of putting the thumb screws on to make him pay.  ("Since you ain't got no collateral, we're gonna have to break one of your legs in advance!!") 

I would also wait until the criminal trial is complete and dealt with.  A conviction in criminal court will go MILES toward a successful win for you in civil court. 

Oh, and in future.  I would have called the police back and told them that you found the licence plate.  They could claim that you had a memory issue in seeing the car at the accident location, but they can't contest the hard evidence of finding the plate there.

Quote from: annguyen1981 on October 07, 2006, 09:52:40 PM
HOW DARE YOU!!!!

I'm sure Alpha doesn't want to be confused with ME...

I just about snorted beer out my nose on that one(*).   The funniest part is Pantablo being such a nice guy, and you calling him out on the embarrassing mistake. 


(*)Belgian.  NOT approved for use in nostrils, regardless of what the French say.