Hacker News Reader

Comment by huebnerob | Hacker News Reader

As a counterargument, here's a reddit thread about CA small claims case that (possibly?) got appealed to a higher court: https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/7h9tn2/i_sued_...

I haven't parsed through the updates so I don't know what the current status is, but I remember the consensus being that this guy was fucked if Equifax actually was able to drag this into a 'real' court. So, YMMV.

View on HN

Suing Equifax also makes for an attractive story, but small claims court can be an unfortunate time-suck for many people: https://jakeseliger.com/2010/08/28/dont-rent-an-apartment-fr... . Granted, most people suing a massive corporations are not likely to get the death threats I did, but lawsuits-as-time-sink problems cut both ways.

It says later in the thread that Equifax filed the appeal too late and the appeal was denied.

https://imgur.com/a/dUCGJ

Also to note just because it may work for one or two times if they start to see a possibility of a large impending loss they can allocate resources to fight small claims cases also.

I don't mind spending hundreds or thousands of dollars in order to force Equifax to do the same to defend themselves. If someone represents me, I'm happy for them to take all of the proceeds if a judgement is found in my favor, as long as Equifax loses.

There is no way they win that if enough people do it. It's so much overhead that the small plaintiff is at a substantial cost-benefit advantage even if they send fresh grad associates by the busload to small claims courts around the country. The Zerg Rush attack might be the best way to tackle this problem ... until of course Equifax gets Congress to pass some kind of legislation to make it impossible to bring Equifax-related suits in Small Claims court.

I doubt "enough" people will do it. It takes some time to prepare and to go to court. Let's say that 5000 people do it,(IMO, not realistic unless organized by someone): 5,000 X $10,000 in damages = $50 million.

Say another $20m for My Cousin Vinny Attorney at Law used to dealing with such cases, and it's not a company killing expense. That's assuming that all win. You could say that word spreads, "he won $10k so you should file too," but I doubt it.

You are only accounting for money, not time.

See, for example, what the Church of Scientology was able to do to the IRS.

Doesn't precedent work in small claims court? Serious question- I don't know. But if it does they may be entirely out of luck if they plaintiff has a solid case.

The difference is, the small claims plaintiffs are representing themselves, so they're only out time. Equifax is paying lawyers hundreds of dollars an hour to not only be in court, but to write memos about it, plus expenses.

Even if the little guy doesn't win, Equifax is going to pay a couple of grand per case. Multiply that by a lot of angry little guys, and Equifax learns an important lesson.

Careful with your language there. The guy isn't "fucked" in any sense of the word. The absolute worst case scenario is that he has to pay a couple hundred bucks in court fees.

My understanding was that Equifax was countersuing for legal costs, if that's not the case then I was indeed mistaken.

They could only get up to $150 in attorney fees and up to $150 in lost wages. However, only if they won the appeal and the judge granted them.

[http://www.calattorneysfees.com/2008/07/small-claims-ap.html]

Reply on news.ycombinator.com