Have you ever sued someone (a civil case)?

Yes I did. I sued for wrongful dismissal and won.

The organization for which I was spokesperson filed a lawsuit for $1 million on constitutional grounds after the city erected an ugly wrought-iron fence for the explicit purpose of preventing poor people from gathering in a public place, because middle class soccer moms were frightened by the sight of people with tattoos. The story was covered by international media, and we were much-ridiculed by the mainstream press.

The day after we filed the lawsuit, I went down with a pair of boltcutters to remove the lock from the gate, with the intention of replacing the lock with one of our own, then giving a copy of the key to the city, the police, and throwing copies of the key out into the general street population so that everyone had access to this public space. Unfortunately we had been infiltrated by the police, and a snitch told them our plans. They were waiting with a surveillance team when I arrived, and I was arrested. I was charged with mischief under $5000 and possession of break and enter tools — crimes for which the maximum penalty is 12 years in prison.

Because I am not beloved by our boys in blue, they tried to give me bail conditions which would effectively have barred me from the city. I told them where they could cram their bail and went to prison instead. My lawyer warned me I could spend the next year and a half in prison, waiting for trial, and I told him I can organize anywhere.

So our very, very bright law enforcers punished me by putting me in a room with 40 angry, bored, cop-hating criminals with nothing but endless vistas of time ahead of them. Five days later, after having successfully organized the inmates to demand better conditions under threat of riot and getting a front-page story on the horrible conditions in the detention centre, I was dragged back into court, where the Crown announced they didn’t want me in jail, and were releasing me without conditions. The judge glared at me and said he was well aware that I was using this to get media attention, and promptly threw me out of prison.

Our plan was to use my criminal changes to help our civil suit. My legal strategy was to take the stand and admit what I had done, then prove that I not only had a perfect constitutional right to do so, but in fact had a legal and moral burden to do so. When they realized what we were doing, the Crown offered to drop my charges if I’d write a letter of apology. I laughed at them and told that not only wouldn’t I apologize, but I was proud of what I had done, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. So the Crown — after jerking my chain and forcing me to go to remand after remand after remand for a year — dropped first one and then the other charge.

In the mean time, the civil suit went to mediation and all I am legally permitted to tell you because of a non-disclosure agreement is that we reached a mediated settlement which was satisfactory to all parties.

Not personally, but at a company I used to work for, I was the person responsible for issuing County Court Judgements against customers (other businesses) who wouldn’t pay their debts.

Kind of. My ex husband made a financial agreement with me then refused to abide by the terms. It ended up costing me my car, my credit score, and my house. When he wouldn’t let up and I was on the verge of complete financial devastation we filed a motion to show cause and took him to court. I won and as a bonus he has backed off his campaign to destroy me – for now at least.

I was in injured in an auto accident when a woman ran a flashing red light at an intersection. She received a traffic ticket for failure to yeild the right-of-way. It was her first traffic ticket. The judge dismissed the charge and said he’d keep her record clean.

Her insurance company proceeded to deny liability for my claims against them. I had to sue. It took three years to get the whole thing wrapped up. But, I won.

Before I had wooded land I ordered a truck load of log length of wood that I would cut and split myself for heat. The price was $x per ton and I was given a weigh ticket as proof. The pile looked small but I paid in full . Two other guys at work ordered wood from the same person and received weigh tickets with the identical amounts – to the pound 40,230 pounds!. That is impossible! There should be much more variation. They too felt their loads were short. We had a professional forester come, check our piles and estimate the weight. He too said we were shorted significantly. The weigh tickets were frauds.
I took the guy to small claims court asking for the amount he shorted us. He did not show. We won the case and were granted a judgment which he ignored. I waited 3 months to see if he would pay up. He didn’t. I then I contacted the Sheriff and State police and had his truck hauled away, impounded, and waiting for auction. Remember, he only owed us a few hundred dollars. $500? I took a day of vacation, went to the county clerk’s office and looked through all the outstanding judgments against the guy and contacted the people he screwed (there were many.) I told them about the auction and said they should make a claim and get in on it. He ended up paying more than $12,000 to get his truck back.
Justice.

I sued the neighbor’s homeowners insurance when their dog attacked my child. And I sued Workman’s Comp when my husband died on the job, but that isn’t really the same. It’s not like we had to go to court or anything.

Personally? Nope. I’ve never seen the point in suing anybody myself. That being said, I do think certain people or organizations deserve to be sued by certain others.

no. hope i never have to

@AnonymousGirl

Can you tell me what such people did

@raven860 I was thinking about Aboriginal children in Canada and the inequalities in First Nations child welfare funding I learned about while I was still in High School. This has been brought to the Canadian government’s attention. Students from the school I attended were invited to attend hearings as that school really seems to care about Aboriginal issues and believes that all students should be taught the truth about history, even if it’s our own bad history. Our government was apparently not happy about us being there and didn’t seem to want anyone outside of the people involved in the case to know what was going on.