Sonic Payday and Law Suit

Mishele,

Since you are going to sue a business, I think the suit should be filed in the state where they do business. I know it is difficult to locate. You can call your nearest District Justice to know where you sue them.

Filing suit is not very tough. You have to fill out a form with all details of yourself and the business/individual you are going to sue. You have to give a reason for what you want to sue them. There is a filing fee involved too.

That was all from me, any lawyer (like Virginia-Legal-Defense) would give you more specific answer obviously.

Whether or not you can file suit in the state where you live, as opposed to where the defendant is located, involves the question of whether you can get jurisdiction over the person of the defendant in a court where you live.

Some states have class action statutes, others (e.g., Virginia) do not. The federal courts do have class actions. They're complicated and highly technical and you need to get a lawyer who does only that to handle it for you. If it were me, I'd file suit for myself only, and I'd do it in a state court where I live, and make the defendant come to me. Chances are, they won't show up and you'll get a default judgment against them, which you can then take to the state where they live and have it domesticated there under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act.

If the defendant committed a tortious act within the state in which you live (e.g., by violation of the fdcpa or the FCRA), or is doing business within the state in which you live(e.g., as a collection agency), most states have what's called a "long arm" statute that subjects the nonresident to the personal jurisdiction of the plaintiff's state courts subject only to the scope of the u.s. constitution's 14th amendment "due process" clause.

Ohio's statute is a good example:
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[?? 2307.38.2] ?? 2307.382. Personal jurisdiction.

(A) A court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a person who acts directly or by an agent, as to a cause of action arising from the person's:
(1) Transacting any business in this state;
(2) Contracting to supply services or goods in this state;
(3) Causing tortious injury by an act or omission in this state;
(4) Causing tortious injury in this state by an act or omission outside this state if he regularly does or solicits business, or engages in any other persistent course of conduct, or derives substantial revenue from goods used or consumed or services rendered in this state;
(5) Causing injury in this state to any person by breach of warranty expressly or impliedly made in the sale of goods outside this state when he might reasonably have expected such person to use, consume, or be affected by the goods in this state, provided that he also regularly does or solicits business, or engages in any other persistent course of conduct, or derives substantial revenue from goods used or consumed or services rendered in this state;
(6) Causing tortious injury in this state to any person by an act outside this state committed with the purpose of injuring persons, when he might reasonably have expected that some person would be injured thereby in this state;
(7) Causing tortious injury to any person by a criminal act, any element of which takes place in this state, which he commits or in the commission of which he is guilty of complicity.
(8) Having an interest in, using, or possessing real property in this state;
(9) Contracting to insure any person, property, or risk located within this state at the time of contracting.

(B) For purposes of this section, a person who enters into an agreement, as a principal, with a sales representative for the solicitation of orders in this state is transacting business in this state. As used in this division, "principal" and "sales representative" have the same meanings as in section 1335.11 of the Revised Code.

(C) When jurisdiction over a person is based solely upon this section, only a cause of action arising from acts enumerated in this section may be asserted against him.
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Good job. Please keep us informed. I must admit that I caved and payed them earlier this month. Their threats of contacting my employer were too much to chance. I have a high profile position so that may have sunk me.

I do commend you for standing your ground and seeking restitution.

Hi Mishele,

We are all rooting for you. Please let us know how it goes, every step of the way! I wish I could offer you assistance, but this is definitely not an area of expertise for me.

~Mary

Wow, now I'm really confused. So, I should file suit in my state of Ohio for myself then? They have harassed me at work, at home, sent information to my employer after a cease and desist was in order. It was more than verifying my employment, they disclosed the information to my boss. They also sent a copy of the e-mail to me at home. I've filed the proper complaints with the consumer protection office and the Federal Trade Commission, and the Better Business Bureau. They have harassed too many people and they need to face the consequences.

I'm dealing with them too...but I notified my boss and references about them. I'm wondering that since they are offshore (Ireland) if they can be sued for harrasment? My gut says yes, since they are doing business in the US..the least that could happen is they stop lending to folks in the States, the most is that they go under totally (here's hoping!)

Let us know how thing so Mishele

Eric

As far as I know, the company does not have any offices in Ireland. Only a mail forwarding address. Their main offices are located in Canada, any signature mail you send to the Ireland address gets returned.

Mishele is in Ohio! YAY OHIO! (Me too. :) )

Let us know what you find out!

Chances are, you can find a lawyer who'll do the suit for you on the premise that there's going to be an award of attorneys' fees under the fdcpa. I would recommend trying to find one. If you can't or don't want to, you can do it yourself, but it isn't as easy and straightforward as it might be. Filing suit is really easy, winning a trial is harder (don't assume they're going to roll over and play dead, even though chances are, they will). The most important thing is to know what your evidence shows. So a log of every violation would help, both at trial and in preparing your suit. Check with the clerk of court in the lower level trial court where you live and see what the jurisdictional limit on how much you can sue for will be there. Chances are, all you have to do is fill out a form and pay a fee.

As to jurisdiction and service of process - if their "last known address" is in Ireland, then it's ok to have process served on them there by mail - all you have to care about is whether they have any physical presence in Ohio. If they cannot be found by the exercise of reasonable due diligence within Ohio, then you're justified in getting substituted service of process via the secretary of state in Ohio. You don't have to care whether they're in Ireland or in Canada, as long as they're not in Ohio, but are committing tortious acts there (no question about that) or doing business or deriving significant income from doing business there. It's going to be easier to collect from them in Canada, though.

No, they are not in Ohio. Does that play in my favor in this case? Also, I know they have a PO Box in Pennsylvania but I don't know if it's just a mail forwarding address or not. Their collections department is supposedly located out of Delaware. This is a hard company to track down. Would it be okay if I sent you some of the stuff via e-mail and you could give me some more suggestions?

Mishele...
i wonder, becuase they do business online, if it would be best to start with an attorney who knows how to handle filing suit for busines in Canada...From everything posted, that would be theplace i think you should start - Winnipeg

I'm going to call some lawyers in my area this week to get more of an idea what I need to do. This is so confusing to me but I'm willing to go through with it. Sonic threatens and harasses people. It's time they were stopped for their illegal practices. Thanks everyone for your support :D I'm also going to check with my state's bar association to see what else I can do.