New Scenario:
My friend had his debit card stolen with the thief ringing up $500 worth of goods. Evan (my buddy) has since frozen his card and is now awaiting bank investigation. If he finds the person that stole his card, what can he get out of it?
My advice to him:
It's possible the person using your card was sloppy. Call the place's he or she went and ask if they have surveillance, this person could have pulled into a gas station (plate showing and all) and swiped your card for a pack of butts. Link the time the card was swiped with the security video and you might have your jerk. The person is on camera somewhere, it's just a matter of where.
He called the Liquor store the card was used and they are going to the tapes. After that, he'll be able to produce physical evidence of the crime... Then he'll call the police and go through the criminal prosecuting process and then pursue a civil trial. How much money can he get?
Has he followed up with the bank? A lot of times they have protection for these sorts of things.
It is probably more trouble than it is worth to pursue a civil trial over this himself.
Yeah, his bank will be reimbursing him the money. I wasn't sure if there was any other type of civil opportunity for him to really hit this dirt-bag hard and get a compensated for the headache. I suppose that's the criminal prosecutors job.
Like a reward? No, there's not, and if at trial the criminal is ordered to pay restitution, he'd be paying it to the bank, as your friend isn't out of pocket at all (since the bank is refunding the fraudulent purchases).
Generally, unless there is a statute either allowing punitive damages or double/treble damages, the goal of the justice system is to make a plaintiff "whole". Your friend has already been made whole, so it's a waste of everyone's time.
What if he was emotionally scarred from having to listen to Genesis for 3 hours while waiting on hold with his bank to get his money back? Then can he sue?
Genesis? I WISH my employer had Genesis on our hold lines. All we have is commercials for our own products... talk about classy. Some customer has $1500 stolen from them and we bombard them with advertisements while they sit on hold for 30 minutes as the customer service rep shops their call around trying to find someone, anyone that doesn't immediately say 'that's not my job'.
Hah!
In regards to the original post, I was in an opposite situation. I was renting month to month with a friendly acquaintance of a land lord. The rent was cheap, but the neighborhood was pretty bad, and he did zero maintenance on the house in over 2 years. When I talked to him about doing some repairs he said that that was my problem (he said it nicer than that) to which I stated, not really chief. His idea of a compromise was to pay for supplies while I did the work. I told him what I get paid by the hour at work, and he didn't want to pay for that.
So, I let the house get worse around me because frankly I didn't care and it was easier to not deal with some of the problems. I moved out ~5 months ago. Even though I was mad at him, I cleaned the house up thoroughly when I left, which is much better treatment than I got when I moved in. He called me and told me he was going to have to bill me for damages.
Now, I didn't fix things in the house like the roofing tiles, the rotted awning over the porch, the broken shed door (broken by someone kicking it in and stealing a... wait for it... broken lawn mower.), etc. He told me all that was working when he left. That was over 5 years ago. He got kind of upset but then I pointed out to him I had never signed a lease agreement of any kind. He got all huffy but ultimately had no choice.
Happy ending: My new place is great, and in a safe neighborhood. By coincidence, I know the person that moved into the old house after me. He pays $200 less a month in rent, so my landlord is getting what it is worth.
Topic: I need legal advise (civil matter) (Read 18709 times)