Seeking Legal Advice...

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, I have a two tiered question. I have a minor legal issue I need to address. I am wondering what the best method of finding and getting adequate legal advice is. In the process of asking I’m going to explain the situation in hopes that some dopers can share their opinions on the best course of action.

Here goes.

Quite a while back my old beat up 88 Mustand broke down. After it sat motionless for a while at a friends, I eventually had it towed to a mechanic near his place. Its about an hour and a half drive from my home. The mechanic told me that it would need about $400 worth of work. I responded to him that I wasn’t going to have it fixed and I asked if he’d keep it there until I made a desision on how to dispose of it via charitible donation or a junkyard.

As an additional stress, I had asked the mechanic to leave the car in an accessable location once it was towed so that I could remove a disk changer and rollerblades from the trunk after hours. He of course didn’t and I drove 3 hrs round trip and was only able to drop off my keys there along with all my contact info.

Well, I let too much time pass because I couldn’t find a day I could take off work to get the items out of my trunk. This made it so that I couldn’t have a third party tow it away and it just sat on the guys lot. It would occasionally stress me out that it wasn’t getting taken care of for about a month and a half, yet the guy never contacted me for a desision so I happily accepted his patience.

Of course it isn’t that simple. He managed to lose all my conatct information and since I’d taken the registrations out and the plates off he couldn’t get a hold of me. Apparently what I took as patience, was really complete incompetence. Things got markably worse in that he somehow decided that I had wanted the car fixed. Yet when we finally got in touch the only justification he could give as to why is that “in 8 years I’ve never fixed a car that someone didn’t want me too”. Strangely he doesn’t have a invoice for the work and could only quote me a price of the lowest estimate he would have given me…$750.

He decides that I have the following options. I come get the stuff out of my trunk and he gives me $100 when I sign the title over to him so he can sell it to make up his difference. I refuse, and he applies for a new title and in 30-60 days he gets a new title for $200 and I’m out the CD changer and rollerblades.

If he hadn’t fixed the car it would have been worth about $50-75 to me as junk, or I could have donated it to charity for $1025 tax write off. I would have chosen the latter option. Unfortuanately he now can make up some arbitratry storage fee he could charge me for the last month or more that would cost me more than the repair I’m sure.

What I’d like to know is if he is correct that he can confiscate the belongings that are in the trunk and legally get a title for the vehicle even if I don’t agree to it and have a title myself. Do I have any leveage to get a more fair deal for my car considering that he has no documentation that says I should be liable for that work.

Considering that I’m quibbling over a few hundred dollars where should I turn to get some legal advice? Aside from polling you good dopers where does one seek legal advice on relatively small claims like this one? There is a huge list in the phone book and I have no idea how to decide if one would address a dispute like this, especially since I can’t forsee it getting to a judge, and at most probably needs a notorized letter of some kind to put some pressure on the guy. Advice, ideas? Number of a decent laywer?

I’m sure no one actually read all of that…

2

First of all, I do know CA law pretty good, but not Ill, where your profile sez you live. In CA you are not responsible for any repairs if you do not sign an estimate.

BUT- you could NOT get a thousand buck contribution write off for the car- if the FMV was a big $100 or so- that’s your donation. Anything else is tax fraud- and since I AM a Tax expert- that advice you can take to the back. This IS tax advice from a certifeid expert.

My advice to you (not legal advice)-is to take the money and run. He could charge you something like $40/diem for “storage fees”- and countersue- and very likely win. Now, it would not hurt to stress how much that car is worth in parts & engine, and try to get, umm say $200, but I think that $100 is a reasonable offer. How about this- he mails you the check, you mail him the keys and title, and he mails you back your “stuff”- and he pays for shipping? Be sure to write this all down, and send him a copy, with a list of what you want back- certified is not a bad idea (once he agree by phone). OK?

3

I’m not a lawyer (I’m not even American!), but you do seem to have been a bit casual* about leaving your car with him for so long without anything in writing.

Daniel’s advice looks good. I think you should try to come out of this without losing too much, and treat it as experience.

*I’m being polite, because I sympathise (I’ve done stuff like this, too). But you don’t say what you agreed when you left the car on the mechanic’s property. (He is entitled to charge you). Also I think asking for your car to be ‘left accessible’ was a risk. What if someone levers open the boot and takes your stuff? Would you sue the mechanic? Wouldn’t your insurance company refuse to pay?
Anyway, good luck!

4

Dan, let me explain. The Fair Market Value according to the Kelley Blue Book is $1025, the charity websites all concur that this is an acceptable method for calculating the tax credit amount. Yes a junkyard offers much less, and that is presumably in exchange for assuming responsibility for selling or dismantling the vehicle. It however is not in line with the definition of FMV as I understand it. Regardless, at this point it is no longer an issue anyways since with the car in full working order it won’t be donated by either party.

Yes I left the car with him much longer than either of us would have liked but I don’t feel especially irresponsible about it. (God knows I have a habit of it) My rationale is this, when the car was initially towed I specifically asked if there would be a charge for towing or storage if I were to decide it was not worth repairing and he assured me there wouldn’t be. I understand his assumption was likely on the scale of days, not weeks, but if he’d not lost my number he would have had all the ability to make his feelings known. The reason for my waiting was because his hours were very short, 9-4 M-F, and I obviously work much longer hours than that. The garage is 90 minutes w/out traffic from my home and over 60 minutes from my office w/out traffic, factor in typivcal weekday traffic in Chicago and it is certain I would need to take a full day off work to address this. So, in a perfect world I would have had the time to deal with it sooner, and if forced to I would have, but based on his comments and lack of contact I assumed it wasn’t an issue. I assumed wrong, but I don’t feel especially bad about that.

I don’t expect to get a full $1000 for the car, and I’d be more than willing to meet him in the middle on the price, but in what started as fair conversations he decided he had the advantage and wasn’t willing to admit any wrong doing. He is standing firm at $100 and he stands to make a tidy profit off his “mistake”. That strikes me as very wrong, and I’d be willing to pay the difference to a lawyer before I pay it to him. If he offered me the $200 in exchange for me saving him 60 days of waiting (assuming his claim to the vehicle is true) I’d accept in order to just get it over with. He’d still be making a profit, and I’d still be losing out but at least its close enough for me to cope with. Of course based on our last discussion I don’t see anyway he’d agree to $200 since it would make it clear I just wanted to end it, he could simply play hard ball and I might lose out on my stuff. I think the only way I could force him to give me more than $100 is by threatening to challenge it legally and drag this out for a long period of time. I do however believe I am in the right, and not just looking to score a buck.

5

look at it this way:

by YOUR mistake, this guy was out the $750 worth of his labor and materials for a couple of months. and you think he should loose that?

So, the basis is:
FMV of car: 1025
Value of his labor & materials 750

balance of what the car is worth (best case) $275 (remember, He’s entitled to his labor and material, they were NOT a gift to you). What would be the interest on a $750 loan for that amount of time? he’s offering you $100 -sounds like he’s meeting you nearly half way to me.

You keep on talking about HIS mistake. His mistake was loosing your number, but you left him no other means of contacting you (you’d taken the plates etc.) you had lots of ways of contacting him (you knew his address, phone number, you could have mailed him something, called, stopped by, had some one else stop by etc.) and did not for a significant amount of time.

Check out the law in your county, I’ll bet he had an option of declaring the vehicle abandoned and keeping everything (including your skates etc.)

6

I’d say try either the Illinois State Bar Association website or the Chicago Bar Association for their lawyer referral services.
My opinion (IAAL)? Heck, Omni, I had to go to law school for three years and take a hellacious exam in order to have a professional opinion. And I was up until 4 a.m. watching the election returns. Today, I’m not willing to give my professional opinion away for free.

7

To be accurate, the FMV of the car without a transmission is $1025. The trade-in value of the car in working condition is $1375 IIRC. The FMV is $2175.

wring, first of all, HIS mistake is more the fact that he fixed a car which I specifically told him not to. For a hypothetical could he service a car abandoned on the side of the street, name whatever price he declared fitting and then give the owner the option of paying for the work or giving up the vehicle? Without any documentation or even a work order/invoice I see no reasonable way to understand how he is entitled to his $750 effectively out of my pocket?

Sure, I’d like the guy to get compensated for the work he did even if it shouldn’t have been done, I have no interest in getting my car and the work done on it for free. But I also feel that I’ve been railroaded (unintentionally or not) into a bill of $750 and the lack of claim to the car that implies.

As for MY mistake, sure I admit to not handling it well and the lack of communication could be grounds to debate if I should owe a “storage fee” but its an entirely seperate issue than the ownership of the car and the liability for the work done on it.

If the world operated on a (do work---->get paid) basis we’d all manage to become very rich people, and being a consumer would suck. The reality is that its a (get hired to do work---->do work---->get paid) process and anyone who’s looked for a job, or tried to market a product or service can attest that its the first part which is the challenge. Thats why I feel cheated.

8

you asked. I answered. Doesn’t bother me if you disagree.
I’ll change my suggestion.

Go hire an attorney if you think you’ve been screwed.

9

Omni, what is your overall financial situation?
How important is a couple hundred bucks to you?
If you didn’t have time to check on your car, are you going to have time/desire to litigate?
Even if you are entitled to a $1200 deduction, is that straight off your taxes or your income?
If the latter, wouldn’t your saving be determined by your tax rate - no more than $400 or so if you are in the max bracket?

If I think about it, I’ll ask the missus tonite. She teaches this kind of stuff. But I anticipate her reaction to be that neither of you has completely clean hands, and your best bet is to minimize your loss and put it behid you.

What would the repair shop be called? A bailee ___? Damn, law school was a long time ago. But, faint stirrings in my grey matter suggest to me that if you paid him no $, and had no written agreement, his duty to you is pretty damn minimal.

I can’t imagine what type of a lawyer could do much more than write a letter for a $1000 case. Even crappy lawyers bill at least $75-100 an hour. Let’s say he wins you $1G and collects 33%. That gives you maybe 4 hours of a cheap lawyer’s time. Unless you qualify for legal aid. When I was in private practice doing commercial litigation and billing hourly, I thought it was hard to make it worth litigating anything under $10G. A complaint, service and summons, any discovery, briefing, a court call or two. The meter runs up pretty damn quick.

Litigating for principle can be pretty darn expensive.

Your best bet might be small claims at which you can represent yourself.

Also, figure in the time. Litigation won’t happen overnight.

I doubt you will be able to improve upon Daniel’s advice:

“he mails you the check, you mail him the keys and title, and he mails you back your “stuff”- and he pays for shipping? Be sure to write this all down, and send him a copy, with a list of what you want back- certified is not a bad idea (once he agree by phone).”

Or you could try Judge Mills Lane. Doesn’t he tape in Chicago?

Addendum - the missus just called. She said if he did the repairs, and there is any way you authorized them, he has a legitimate lien on your car. Put this behind you.

10

Financially the couple hundred bucks isn’t an issue for me. It is a matter of prinicple and if I win I’d just end up blowing the money in Vegas…but if I hit roulette with it…

I really wouldn’t commit the time to take it to court, but I wouldn’t be opposed to paying a laywer $500 to spend his time on it just so long as the mechanic didn’t get off with a pass.

As far as the tax deductible goes, like I said its a moot point now since the car has been fixed, I wouldn’t personally see much of that money. The car is in both my parents and my name (same car I bought when I was 16) and I wouldn’t be able to deduct a dime, my parents however would probably see the full amount. The idea was to let them take the deduction.

You know getting on one of the 15 Judge “So-and-so” shows filmed in Chicago went through my head for a second.

11

Omni, I saw this right as I was about to leave to meet someone for a drink, but this simply isn’t worth litigating or hiring an attorney. I have an idea or two that you can try yourself. Give me a call tomorrow (or e-mail me) if you want. (My office number is in the book.)

12

Random, I’ll e-mail you tonite from home. Thanks.