What do I do if I am being sued for a letter that I did not recieve?

Question

This my situation: my restaraunt is being sued because it does not accomodate to handicapped correctly. It has been a while and I have not kept up with building laws. The person suing me is also a lawyer who has over one hundred cases, where he goes around and sues small restaraunts to what I feel is to make a quick buck. Supposedly, he sent us a letter. We did not recieve the letter, we suspect that the tenants who we are leasing the restaraunt to must have thrown it away. Should I setttle with him because lawyer charges are too much? He wants a good sum of money and lawyer charges will be more than the cost of just settling with him but I feel it is morally wrong that this man is going around and suing just to make a quick buck. Any suggestiosn?

Answer 1

~Let me see: you readily acknowledge that you have thumbed your nose at the law knowingly and wilfully for "a while", you know you are in the wrong and the plaintiff (the lawyer or his client) has a good, viable and just case, you are too cheap to want to hire counsel to represent you in a case you know will lose, but you don't want to settle because of the lawyer's ethics. Have I got it right?
I suggest you buy your way out as cheaply as you can and bring the joint into compliance while hoping like hell that the code enforcement officer doesn't come after you with an injunction and a per diem fine.
You'll actually have to pay to find out if service was good, and then pay more to challenge it in court. When you lose that battle, you'll still have the suit to contend with. Even if you win the service question, the lawyer can simply serve you again, and you can start from scratch.
All those laws and codes you chose to ignore have caught up with you. Maybe the leech who is out to make a quick buck is really a crusader, out to get scoff-laws like you to bring businesses into compliance with the laws you decided to subject yourself to when you opened up shop.
Stop whining and bring the business into compliance like you should have done for the "while" you have chosen to ignore the law.

Answer 2

For how long have you been running your restaraunt[ UR SPELL]?
Anyway, you are aware of the fact that you have breached the laws on two counts.Considering these facts I cannot think of any alibi if a lawyer sues you.There are ways under certificate of posting that would verify your reciept of the `letter',independent of your will.Actually, you do not have a case and even if you conjure alibies they would be voided.But if you have goodwill, regular customers who can vouch and run your business fairly then I suggest that you better make up with your adversary informally, with a little loss of face.The legal route can easily trap you. I guess you should settle with `the person'out of court by giving him the money. Do some bargaining on the sum. Remember, the course you have in mind would be costlier and time consuming. When a lawer catches you on the wrong foot you have to settle with him.TRYING TO MAKE `A QUICK BUCK' WITHOUT RECOURSE TO ILLEGALITY IS NOT WRONG.

Answer 3

There was a similar scam of lawsuits served on dozens of small businesses throughout California a few year back. There's a name for these type of frivilous actions. The atttorneys responsible were disbarred. Some of them did not even have attorney licenses, it was a total scam!!

Anyways, if the lawsuit you're dealing with does have merit, with respect to handicapped accessability, that's governed by the Federal AAHD codes. It says that any building constructed before 1991 is exempt from compliance. However, to the extent that architectural barriers can be readily removed, then the law requires you to do so.

I had a client who owned a commercial building and was sued just like you in federal court. The plaintiff was some freeloader in a wheel chair who wasn't even a customer of any of the businesses in the building. He claims that he went into the building to use the restroom and noticed that it wasn't handicap accessible.

We had to retrofit the builiding to the extent feasible but the court gave us many months to comply and really no fine was ordered.

You should get a lawyer who has handled cases like the ones I menttioned in your state.

It's possible that the frivolous lawsuit scam shakedwon that went down in CA several years back is being duplicated. It's directed at small businesses justt like your. And since you only own a one story restaurant and not a commercial building like my client, I would bet money on the fact that you are DEFINITELY BEING SCAMMED INTO A BOGUS DOLLAR SETTLEMENT TO SQUEEZE MONEY OUT OF YOU!!

Answer 4

You should settle. whatever the reason that he is suing you, you still broke the law when you failed to abide by building and zoning laws to accommodate the handicapped.
The letter that he sent would have been registered and signed for. If he has a signature of receipt, you're SOL.
If you don't settle, you'll incur high attorney's fees and will likely lose anyway.

Answer 5

SHOW ME THE MONEY, sorry show ME the money. pay the lawyer 2 thousand dollars instead of spending 1,500 dollars to install a wheel chair ramp.....then i will sue you for the same thing ......here is a link to the building codes in your area...WWW dot get a clue dot com