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YOU ARE BEING SUED!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published February 15, 2019
In our sue-happy society it just happens all
too often. Many of these lawsuits are in my opinion frivolous --
and there should be a serious penalty for attorneys who file
these frivolous lawsuits that will do nothing but create income
for the attorneys.
That already starts with these often useless
cease-and-desist letters some attorneys are creating in
mass-production -- and charging lots of money for it – even if
they know that their claims are about as ridiculous as it gets.
If common sense would prevail, the parties
would sit down and talk things over instead of burdening the
courts with nonsense.
But if you are being served with a lawsuit –
no matter frivolous or not – make sure you observe the
dead-lines. No matter if you think the lawsuit is frivolous or
has absolutely no merits, make sure the court receives an answer
in a timely manner.
Just ignoring the lawsuit gets you in deep
doo-doo. Even if the claims in the lawsuit have no merits,
ignoring the lawsuit you are being served with is just
empowering the opposition.
No matter what you decide to do, make sure
that your insurance carrier is informed in a timely manner. Not
only associations are being insured if a lawsuit is filed
against them, many homeowners carry certain types of insurance
against lawsuits in their property owners’ policy.
Just a little hint for owners: If you have a
dispute with your community association, make sure that the
association has to sue you, the owner. Remember: If you are the
plaintiff, you will fight the attorney of an insurance company
with deep pockets. And many of these insurance attorneys have a
tendency to fight you not with merits of the actual case, but by
bleeding you financially dry, creating lots of cost trying to
avoid you seeing the inside of a court room for trial.
As Darlys said in her blog: TIME IS OF
ESSENCE!
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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