Court or Pay Up?

Question

Long story short, I have an ex-tenant who I had to evict because of non-payment of rent.  He filed a lawsuit against me for all sorts of ludicrous things that he says I did or did not do (i.e. trespassing, harassment, etc).  He basically has no money and is trying to collect on insurance money.  His lawyer is subpoenaing everyone he can think of even if they have nothing to do with this just to run up the tab so insurance will pay out instead of going to trial.  Right now the insurance company is willing to shell out a good amount of money but it's still $7K short of what this tenant is asking for.   I know I did absolutely nothing wrong and don't want to give this guy a penny.  However my time is also very important.  Would you pay and end all this nonsense or spend who knows how long fighting this in court in front of a jury for justice?

Rick H. · Answer

File an Anti-S.L.A.P. lawsuit.

Dawn Anastasi · Answer

Is the tenant going through Legal Aid? Then they are not having to pay the attorney.

If your insurance settles, how much will your rates on your properties go up?

Bryan N. · Answer

Provide your insurance company with all the information.  Let them deal with it.

John T. · Answer

Ya I'm not sure if the lawyer has a retainer fee or would work on percentage.  If the tenant is paying the lawyer based on hours billed he may get skiddish after roadblocks.  If the lawyer is doing this on his own dime (hoping for a percentage) he may back down when he realizes this is going no-where and he's wasting his own time.  I'm probably not the best to ask about this its just my 2cents.Sounds like you already have a trial date set though in this case, but I'd call my lawyer (I'm lucky mine is a friend that doesn't really charge me) and have him push the date out and keep causing delays.  It sounds like your ready to just get it over with though, and I know most highly successful people believe in settlements instead of gambling at trial.

Karen S. · Answer

I don't know how lawyers work. Maybe they just get a percentage of what comes out of this.  They're the ones that probably put that idea in his head that the insurance company with payout to settle this.  What they're probably not telling him is that whatever he gets out of this, they're probably going to wind up with most, if not all of it.  This has been going on since early 2014 and we have a trial date set for next month. So frustrating!

John T. · Answer

If your tenant has no money he may have trouble keeping his lawyer going when you fight back and bring a lot of roadblocks yourself.  May cause the tenant to back down once he realizes it's not going to be an easy payday for him.  I prefer not to be a pushover though just out of principle which may not always be the right choice.