Comments on Advance Indiana™: 7th Circuit Court Of Appeals' Decision Shuts Down Forum Shopping By Debt Collectors In Marion County

Attorney Dan Edelman up in Chicago and his firm ha...

2014-07-13T10:44:10.464-05:00

Attorney Dan Edelman up in Chicago and his firm happen to be some of the best consumer class action lawyers in the country. Great job Dan in the Suesz en banc decision handed down by the 7th Circuit on July 2, 2014. It certainly will help to end abusive debt collection practices in Marion County Township Small Claims Courts.

. . . Metropolitan Board of Realtors (MIBOR) expla...

2014-07-03T08:55:45.077-05:00

. . . Metropolitan Board of Realtors (MIBOR) explaining why they called in their favors and regretfully strong-armed an agreement that exempts all real estate professionals, defined as belonging to Mibor, from any forthcoming landlord registration requirements, meaning all city and county owned rental property will be exempt, all land bank property is exempt, all hospital and university rental property is exempt, all Section 8 property is exempt from anything more than the bull lies they report now, and all out of state owners are beyond the jurisdiction; so only local owners of rental properties will be funding this huge new city bureaucracy of inspecting rentals and fining owners for failures to be up to “code”, a lawsuit in the making for treating different property owners differently that has been invalidated as unconstitutional in several other states. So all politically well connected owners with lobbyists in Indianapolis are exempt while all retirees living off the income from their properties are hammered, and that includes black landlords, and there are thousands in Indianapolis. CCC members say there will be no inspections, but that’s a patent lie they should stop repeating. There are huge, expensive “compliance” reports that have to be provided the city by every landlord that will require a professional inspector to prepare, and landlords have also to affirm under oath that they are not in violation of any code (there are thousands), or penalties will attach. So, tearfully, the MIBOR explains that their members must be exempted from the draconian reporting requirements and enormous expenses such rules would require from their members, but that the mom and pops are fair game to raise money from. And one last blast, most of the boarded up buildings in Marion County are owned by the Indianapolis land bank, the single largest owner of boarded up buildings in the state of Indiana, and they will be exempt from registration and inspection requirements. So these Democrat ccc members, expect to be called to task for brutalizing your black, middle class landlords with this program you think will ease blight. It will only raise rents and force thousands of rentals into the Section 8 program.

You can’t sue an insurance company in small claims...

2014-07-03T06:36:07.461-05:00

You can’t sue an insurance company in small claims court, but they can sue you. I had an issue with an insurance company that wouldn’t pay for a window blown out in a storm even though I had to replace several. I tried to sue them in small claims court, because it was less than $2,000. But the court bounced that case up to what they call civil plenary court, a real superior court requiring formal papers and representation by lawyers, over my objection that this was a simple matter and in the court’s jurisdiction and less than the max amount of money in controversy. Nevertheless, it bounced up and I caved in and walked away. And the lawyer for the other side said “this is an insurance town”, they make it really hard to get anything from an insurance company, and the small claims courts won’t even handle claims because bouncing them up to superior court makes them expensive and complicated and all the people walk away. So think about that the next time you think about the fairness and impartiality of the Marion County Courts. Just try to sue your insurance company in small claims court and see what happens to you. Same runaround at the Dept. of Insurance. Try making a complaint. They run you through the mire, make you produce your receipts and everything, and then finally tell you to blow off even though you’re in the right because they protect the insurance companies. Period. Ask an insider about it and they’ll tell you the General Assembly protects insurance companies. Exempting them from Small Claims is only one small piece of evidence of that larger truth.

The debtor lived in Hancock County. The contract w...

2014-07-03T06:18:36.619-05:00

The debtor lived in Hancock County. The contract was made in Lawrence Township where Community North Hospital is located, but the creditor brought the case in Pike Township.

They make landlords file eviction actions in the t...

2014-07-03T06:01:31.382-05:00

They make landlords file eviction actions in the township the property is located in, no exceptions. But these debt collectors can file all the way across the county, even if there’s no way a debtor could get to an 8:30 hearing in Pike Township by bus from a different side of town. Forum shopping isn’t the only problem with these debt collectors. They hammer out these pre-hearing settlements with the people who actually show up to court before the case is called and tell the judge the parties have reached agreement before the judge even has the chance to look it over. These lawyers ought not to be able to do this on the property grounds because it looks abusive, and you get these debtors who come all the way to court and they don’t get the benefit of really talking to the judge before these lawyers get them in a room and hammer out some agreement. Meanwhile busy landlords and tenants are sitting hours in the courtroom waiting while all these shenanigans are going on just to get a damn possession order that they could issue at the clerk’s desk without waiting weeks, taking half a day in court and having to come back a second time months later. Just who are these small claims courts supposed to help, anyway? Not the debtors. Not the landlords or tenants. Who?

Did the Deft here reside in Marion County? I thoug...

2014-07-03T06:00:42.995-05:00

Did the Deft here reside in Marion County? I thought the opinion said that Deft. resided in Hancock County, which is a FDCPA violation.

Also, a good job of lawyering by Deft's attorney (whoever that was) by never giving up.

If Indiana does not create a Uniform court system ...

2014-07-03T05:50:24.139-05:00

If Indiana does not create a Uniform court system and continues to allow a certain county to have small claims courts, this type of wrongdoing will continue.

It is time for The State to have a Uniform system of courts, so that justice is fair.

Why do some places have "Town Courts," "city courts," "small claims courts" (guess what county has them), some "Superior Courts" and every county has a Circuit Court???? There must be a uniform system of courts so that justice can prevail.

Nice to see this ruling. The 7th Circuit really ne...

2014-07-02T22:16:25.410-05:00

Nice to see this ruling. The 7th Circuit really needs to get the Indiana Southern District in line.

The Southern District gives Indianapolis a heavy pro-establishment tenor that stifles much vibrant economic activity that could occur here.