Depending on the state, a $4,000 claim would likely be eligible for small claims court where you do not need a lawyer.
Even in small claims, I would think that the judge would tell the sister’s ex to go pound sand.
It would be over in two minutes. There’s no documentation and that’s that.
Sure. I was responding to @Toxgoddess’s post that he would need a lawyer to sue. In small claims you generally don’t need a lawyer, you just fill out some paperwork and pay some court fees.
I agree it would be a slam-dunk case, but in the (unlikely) event that @Asuka is sued in small claims, he/she will still need to take it seriously. The burden will be on ex-bf to document any agreement between them, but OP will still need to meet deadlines for responding, answer any motions for discovery, show up to the court date, answer any questions from the judge clearly, etc.
Oh sure, I agree with that. But they don’t need to worry about losing.
Less any fines or other expenses that are owed to the court. My brother screwed our grandmother out of $1000 once when this happened. Last time she loaned him bail money.
Hell, I was arrested, bailed out paying $1600 and only got $1200 and change back, even though all charges were dropped by the prosecutor, who said he couldn’t figure out why I was arrested in the first place. Whole bunch of fees.
Note: I didn’t use a bail bond. The entire bail was $1600, twice the maximum fine I faced if convicted.
Basically they charged me $350 for the car ride and 6 hours accommodation, plus a similar amount to get my car back from impound.
Not to mention $1500 for a lawyer. Who knows what would have happened if I had gone in unrepresented thinking nothing bad could possibly happen to me just because I was clearly innocent.
And circulating my mug shot to various internet sites.
Arrestee-as-revenue-stream has become an increasingly popular scam.
This was 25+ years ago.
IANAL.
I defended myself in a frivolous law suit. Both parties appeared pro se. In the first two minutes I objected to hearsay testimony three times by the guy who was suing me and the magistrate sustained my objection each time. He explained each time why my objection was made and sustained. The magistrate was very understanding, bordering on condescending.
This led to the guy calling the magistrate a fucking idiot.
I won.
Interesting legal strategy.
People and their tempers! I occasionally will call someone a motherfucker, but it’s always a thought out thing, not flying off the handle.
At least he had learned his lesson about hearsay, and provided direct testimony.
It has long since ceased surprising me when attorneys seem to adopt “piss off the decision-maker” as their strategy.
Well that’s one argument. Another is that it keeps poor people off the streets and away from their jobs and families, while allowing those with means the privilege to continue offending.
This is why “well if you aren’t guilty, why worry” thing is false. Being arrested and charged is not cheap. And you got off cheap, but I see that was long ago. I would say three times that today.
Yep. State and local areas are getting rid of cash bail for many offenses, since it is just another penalty for the poor.
I hope “vigorish” isn’t offensive, but perhaps the “Vigors” or “Vigorians” will take issue.Can you explain your use of the term “vigorish” here? I’ve read it (primarily in Spenser for Hire novels, but other crime stories, too) as the interest on a loan-shark debt. I haven’t seen it, nor can I find an online definition, for the amount paid to a bailbondsman for their services, or for a bond paid to the court.
StG
I haven’t heard it used in this context either, but it makes sense. The bail bondsman’s fee is quite literally charging a high interest rate on a risky debt. You can view it as the bondsman lending 40k to the bailed defendant to put up bail, with the 4k as interest on the risky loan.
I’ve heard vigorish used for the margin on odds in sports betting. I don’t know how exactly it works in American style odds, but in fractional odds you might have the Patriots at 9/11 and the Dolphins at evens, which imply that there is a 55% chance of the Patriots winning and a 50% chance for the Dolphins. The fact that they add to 105% means the bookmaker has a 5% margin which is termed the “vig”. It’s been a long time since I have actually placed a bet with a bookmaker, maybe the terms have changed.
Yeah, it came from gambling. In parimutuel wagering, the house’s skim off the pot before paying out the all the rest of the wager income to the winners is the “vigorish” or “vig”.
Various oddsmakers use the same term.
Loosely speaking the “vig” is “the fee to play”. Applied loosely to bail bondsmen, it’s the fee you pay them so they’ll play “can I trust you to show up in court?” with 10x of their own money.
“Vig” always has that vaguely sleazy undertone of gambling, crooks, etc. Idiomatically you wouldn’t really say “Visa charges a 2% vig on all my merchant transactions”, but you wouldn’t be factually wrong with that usage. It is a vig, and it is a couple percent.
When I lived in Las Vegas the term was used for a lot more routine non-gambling situations than one might encounter in, say Akron Ohio.