Termyn8or
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/12/illinois-debtors-thrown-i_n_1144093.html
This is not the first I've heard of this. Now in the old days if you didn't show up for a civil trial you lost by default and if you ignore all the notices you could find yourself losing your house for example. This happened to a Woman in Utah over a dentist bill of less than $100. Utah has some funny laws. However if you ignore notices all the time I think it could happen almost anywhere.
So does this cross the line ? There are already plenty of fraud laws on the books. I may have mentioned that with the proper paperwork you can buy just about anything. You can lie about your income easily but there are a couple of hitches. For example you want to buy a business. Well I know someone who did it on welfare. All it takes is the right forms. Faking income verification is fraud but it's almost impossible to prove if done right.
But when you walk into a bank claiming to have made a quarter million a year for the last ten years, and you are driving a $500 beater for example...... Well it's not that simple but they are going to want to know what happened to all that money. There have to be some assets SOMEWHERE. So it is't that simple but this was thirty years ago as well, and getting caught was discussed. If payments are made, that would be some sort of defense against a fraud charge. However that was then and this is now. A whole bunch of people did this with cars, and the ones who got busted had never made even one payment. Frequently the MO was to move the car effectively to keep it out of reach of the repo man.
So when I got sued around my eighteenth birthday, well I got into a car wreck with a lawyer. Nice guy actually after all this was over. Sued for $353,000 and he knew lawyers. Alot of people just don't show up, drive without a license for seven years and then MAYBE file bankrupcy if they ever want a house. That'e the way it was done. So tis guy put in the allegation malice and intent which was completely untrue. Hell no I didn't want to wreck my car, but here anyway, that would prevent me from filing bankruptcy on it.
Later, on a different lawsuit I had some assets and I simply refused to go to court. Why wouldn't I want to go to court ? Well first of all due to the circumstances I was legally at fault. I was only going about 30-35 on the highway because of bad weather. I was traveling in a pretty much straight line, and continued to do so against my will because there was an unexpected sheet of ice on the road. There was already an accident up ahead of me which I am thankful for not ploughing into. A car stopped me.
However the front of my car hit the back of another and no matter what, that made it my fault. Well if I had gone to court what would they ask ? They had already sent out a form for me to fill out listing all my assets which went to the round file. See this time it was an insurance company and they know what they're doing. So what to do if asked under oath what, where and how my money is. Lie ? I don't think so. Refuse to answer ?
Therein is the crux of the matter. There is no refusal under the fifth amendment here, therefore that surely would result in a contempt of court charge and lying would be perjury.
Either way I could be fucked if I go. The way it was I settled later at 33 cents on the dollar, cash. They like cash but if they had a snowball's chance in hell of collecting the full judgement any leverage I might have would have evaporated. So it was in my best interest not to go. One third is pretty good, and if you ever have to do this tell them " If you get all the money back you pay out, why do you charge premiums ? " LOL
So how many of these people are thinking the same thing ? Just make sure that process server doesn't see YOU. When they claim that they didn't know they were being sued, do you believe them ? You know damn well if you haven't made payments or did something that'll get you sued, no ? So, should they be thrown in jail ?
This may be more of an issue than it seems at first glance because anyone with a working brain knows that this economy is not going to recover. That means more foreclosures, more defaults, and therefore more such court cases. According to the article nine counties are known to issue such warrants in civil trials. The trend could spread.
And I believe that as it does you will see the true face of your beloved government. Fed funding for states is dropping like broken TVs, they are going to have to release a hell of alot of prisoners, probably including a few dangerous felons sooner or later.
Can you imagine them letting a rapist out early to make room for someone who didn't pay their JC Penny bill ? Far fetched but I can, even though one would be in a city joint and another in a prison, sooner or later it will come to something like that. The return of the debtor's prison.
It's really been too long since I've read the Constitution. There may be a specific prohibition of debtor's prisons in it, but then there are alot of other things in it that are conveniently forgetten.
Boiled down maybe it comes down to whether promising and then failing to pay constitutes theft. Having the means or not, is it relevant ?
T^T
< Message edited by Termyn8or -- 12/13/2011 7:12:52 AM >
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Debtor's prison ? - 
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