I got a summons to go to court. The court is 5 hours away from my location. They sent a check for 230.00.
Can I request more money from the Lawyer??
I will loose $900.00 in inspection fees and also my travel and gas.
The lady called me due to a bad renovation. I performed an inspection on the home to find bad workmanship. He got 18 months of free rent and is going after her for another $16,000. The money and time involved was no where near the $34,000 dollars he is allegadly out for the reno. He even sub let the basement suite without telling her!
Just thought a little background on the situation was prudent. This is not what I will be saying in court. As a wise man once said: “just the facts maam”.
Greg, I get called as an expert witness a lot. I have a provision in my contract regarding “extra services” and charge a minimum number of hours at my hourly tariff. However, should I get assigned by an outside party, as a witness where the summoning party is not a client of mine, I fail to see how I could get more than the (as we call it here) “witness tax” (which is $180/day for expert witnesses and $90 for others BUT there are a lot of conditions attached to this).
Bottom line: I fail to see a solution, unless the judge is really generous…
G.
I contacted my lawyer this morning and they have said the same thing. They were surprized I was getting that much actually. This is a crime in itself!!
It’s bloody ridiculous! Courts should go through a reality check! Unfortunately, there is not much one can do against a summons, unless you want to be held in contempt! It’s like jury duty! I got “caught” in 2 months of jury duty, some years ago, where it paid about $38 per day, whereas I was making several times that! And at the time, they generously allowed you public transport at $1.00/day, etc.
G
It is a little ridiculous what the courts pay. I had a roommate in college that spent 4 months on jury duty over summer break. Since he was sequestered no chance of earning any income other than the 29 bucks a day (no pay on weekends yet u are still sequestered)
It took him about a year to earn up what he spent on regular expenses during the trial
John in my mind that is criminal and I would fight it tooth and nail to prove the damage they caused.
This is one area of Control along with many others that needs to be stopped.
I might be wrong but if this is a civil case as it looks you should be able to negotiate a better rate.
Call the lawyer who sent the summons and see what you can do.
Cheers
PS
Be VERY careful what you post on the internet it may come up in a search
Be VERY careful what you post on the internet it may come up in a search
Great info thanks for the reminder
Yes you are correct. Forgot about that.
When summoned by a third party, be it in civil or criminal cases, there is sometimes the possibility of, indeed, negotiating. However, there is no obligation for the summoning party to do this. But the point (and article) raised by Nick makes a lot of sense. One can only try.
G
Any Auxiliary Home/Building Inspection service/s contract/s, such as the service you have provided, should have fee based amendments attached to them.
1: The inspection fee is for that day/report only. Explain what the scope of the fee covers. Report, how it’s delivered, what the report’s review consists of.
2: There will/maybe added cost/s to any future report*** explanations or reviews***.
3: Any fees incurred by acting as expert witness, for auxiliary reports, will be billed to the client.
Just my two cents.
NOTE: The InterNACHI contract can be used to extract and used to distil a contract. Have a lawyer peer and review the contract.
JM2cents
Don’t look farther than you backdoor to start.
Joe Farsetta is versed at trying to negotiate a summons demand by a third party.
His provenance alone, Co Founder of InterNACHI, will bare relevance, (and fruit), The third parties legal representation will become aware when/as considerations to proceed with a long drawn out process moves along.
This can not be understated InterNACHI members!!!
Several InterNACHI members have witnessed his efforts.
look no further than your back door for most everything Home Inspection related:-)
The insurance company has a say in the matter as well.
Either/or.
BACK TO THE THREAD.
Summoned as witness.
Collecting fees for being served by a third party is a mindless attempt in my opinion.
If its your client, I hope you had the amendment in your contract to collect a fee if this situation ever arose.
Mao Zedong “Your best defense is a good offence.”
Someone that knows the game being played.