What a bunch of crap. They can't have you arrested and extradited to Mississippi over a $4,000 civil matter.

I bet the Mississippi bar association would love to know one of their lawyers is sending out crap like that in a letter. It would be great if you could flip this situation on them and get his lawyer buddy in trouble.

 

[QUOTE=wickerbill,Dec 29 2009, 05:25 AM] What a bunch of crap.

 

Google the "lawyer" and fax them a copy. I'll bet it's either not a real lawyer or that they forged the letter.

 

threatening to sue and suing are 2 entirely different things. The first you can ignore, the second you can't.

Talk to a lawyer, explain the situation and get an opinion. He won't charge you for it (and if he tries find another lawyer) and will tell you what to do next.

 

I did talk to his lawyer and he told me to try and work things out. Kinda Makes me feel like he can't do anything. I doubt they could arrest me and take me to Mississippi... He says he can sue because in the eBay listing I said it was running good, but the thing is he didn't buy it through eBay. Another thing is my reserve on eBay was 7000 and he paid me 5500. It's not my fault the kid started to rip the engine apart trying to boost it even more and ran into problems like the car not idleing good.

 

Have you called a local lawyer yet? This will all be resolved as soon as you do. Just ask if they do free consultations.

this kid's lawyer is probably a family friend or something. he probably realizes he has no case.

 

We need some simple questions answered first.

1. Was there ANY bill of sale? Or was it just a title sign over.
2. You need to get an exact age of the kid.
3. GO TO A LOCAL LAWYER already. lol

My dad has been sued many times (Self Employee'd Mechanic and Dealer) and he has won every single one of them because he always has them sign a bill of sell or release of liability.

 

If you sold the car, you did it in your state, there's no way you can be carted off to MS as the issue did not occur there. You've broken no laws. The kid will need to file a case in your state - arguing that alone will bog the two of you down and make lawyers some decent money. Suing you for $4k means he is aiming for the maximum he can in small claims, which I really doubt a lawyer is going to bother with or pursue vigorously.

Personally, until i saw a subpoena to a local court, I wouldn't even worry about a lawyer. Just tell the kid that the sale is as is, if he picked it up in PA and drove it to MS, he could have damaged the car a thousand times over - there is no way you can lose in such a case as the precedent set is a- buyer beware and b- the new owner had possession of the car long enough to damage it. If you were really getting sued, you wouldn't get a letter from a lawyer, you'd get a knock on the door from a Sheriff.

Download all the correspondence and evidence of modding the buyer has done so you have it on paper, in case you need it in a court case. If you can document that the kid had the car for any period of time, made further modifications to the car, and basically knew he was getting a tuned car than needed tuning, threaten to counter-sue for whatever your small claims maximum is for court costs, travel costs, time lost from work, all things you'll need to quantify to a judge. Countersuits will scare off anyone who is not truly serious about suing you (or just too dumb).

Just to clear some other stuff up:
- when did he buy the car, and when did he claim he wanted his money back?
- did he pick up the car in PA and drive it home?

 

I have a lawyer, they are expensive. If the kid doesn't have enough to fix His car, he definatly dosen't have enought to sue you. Don't worry about it.

I bought a car that had a ton of problems that the owner didn't tell me about, at least you told the guy what to fix. He should be happy.

 

I didn't see it mentioned, but given the dollar value this sounds like a civil matter to begin with - no lawyer neccessary.

I sued a mechanic for 3K once and won. Of course, him being a deadbeat I still haven't seen any money, and prior to it happening he said "go ahead, you wouldn't be the first, etc.". Now there are leins on his business and such, and Im sure its affected his ability to get loans and the like, but point is, he doesn't need a lawyer to take you to court.

Now as for his "case" - it won't hold water as it was an "as-is" sale. The "good guy" in me says call him, try to reason and be helpful - it DOES suck having a car thats giving you problems. Guide him on what to do, give him a point of reference (forums, whatever) and see if you can get it all sorted out.

Hes upset about the car - Im sure its nothing personal.