LITTLE ISSUES – HUGE LEGAL FEES
By
Jan Bergemann
Published November 16, 2018
Attorneys love it, owners hate it: Lawsuits over little things
that are normally not even worth mentioning. And it happens all
the time!
Let’s face it: The scare tactics of many “specialized” attorneys
works perfectly well. If the attorney tells board members that
they can’t enforce anything if they don’t go after “small
potatoes” board members often agree to file suit, even if
common sense would tell them that there are easier ways to solve
little problems than a law suit.
On the other there are still too many board members who just
don’t care about wasting money on frivolous lawsuits, making the
mistake of thinking: It’s not my money, it’s the association’s
money we are spending!
No matter what: A lawsuit, no matter who initiated it, is always
a losing proposition for all owners. The only real winner: The
attorneys!
Please think twice before giving the go-ahead to the attorney
for filing the lawsuit.
Always remember the so-called LITIGATION VORTEX:
Once you’re in it, it’s difficult to get out of it again without
serious financial losses. Even if you realize later that this
lawsuit should have never been filed, the money so far has been
spent – and there may never be an opportunity to recover these
funds that could have been used for much better purposes than
buying an attorney a new Mercedes.
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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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