OT:Law Firm Associates Getting SLAUGHTERED…

[Arraya]

BTW I have lost my job before and while it’s not fun it ain’t the end of the world either. As long as you have some $ in the bank and you’re willing to relocate and maybe retrain yourself that is. Oh and of course you must be willing to step down a rung on the ladder from time to time and I’ve done that too.

What if there are no jobs to be had and your money only has a fraction of the buying power? What if millions upon million become unemployed at the same time and any savings they might have becomes a fraction of what it was worth.

During Great Depression 1 people went back to the land to live and more than 50% of the population lived on family farms and we had about 60% less people.. We are not the country we were in the 30s. At 30+ % unemployment and a crashed currency we are looking at massive civil unrest or people going silently into Gulag style work camps or starving in the streets. Knowing Americans we will spit venom all over any social money going to them and have the starve in the streets or happily see them marched into work camps, that, of course, will be privatized because we know how evil socialism is. See Irish Potato famine. Lots of potatoes no money. 1/3rd of the population died and most of the public looked the other way.

We are just under 14% unemployment according to unscrubbed u-6 government numbers. Extrapolate out unemployment at current trajectory and in a year puts us at 20+%. Juxtapose that with the global inertia away from the dollar, which is IMMENSE and you have a different world. After this collapse many countries will recognize where they land the US will not and that will make people extremely cranky.

This not a grand conspiracy, though there are many conspiring, this is an evolution of an inherently flawed system and the incredible amount of malfeasance signifies they guys running the system either a) trying to keep it going fraudulently or B) foreknowledge of the end of the system

I personally think they gave up on A and have moved to B. They are making their lifeboats and putting holes in everybody else’s.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]O.K Piggs, excuse the interruption please…

Ucgal,
Hopefully you have some good ideas or perhaps the attorney can provide some.Maybe you could hire an appraiser to calculate the value the contractor provided vs. the money paid. No matter what course of action you take you are probably going to need to establish a basis with a third party.I think and insurance appraiser or a contractor who normally works with insurance providers could do this. In your shoes I might try this and send it to the person and his insurer with a demand in an attempt to get the paper trail you will need established. Maybe you did all this already? As you probably know it will really come down to leverage against any means the contractor has to remedy the inequity.

I know some people you could call if you need to establish value. If they can’t help you I think they will point you in the right direction. I can give you or your husband an email if you want to discuss it off line. You probably have a handle on it, but just in case, I have some experience here.I am not looking for work. I don’t don’t get involved in these settlements professionally. I came by this experience by beign in a similar situation to yours and I know how helpless of an experience it felt like at first.

[/quote]
piggs – please forgive the continued interruption.

Russell – when the contractor abandoned the job (or started his serious threats to shake us down and walk)… we contacted a lawyer. We have until August to file against the thief. In the meantime we finished the project with a different GC. Per our attorney, our losses include the *actual* costs to finish the job, not just the cost remaining on the original contract. This makes sense because we had a hard time finding any contractor willing to take on a project started by someone else… for liability/warranty reasons. So the cost to complete was almost as high as the original contract price – despite being through the expensive grading and retaining walls. (Gotta love hillside development.)

We have several basis points for determining what state the original contractor left things. The new contractor clearly specified what he wasn’t responsible for. (To cover his liability/warranty). We also brought in the city inspectors. And we had our third party engineers (geotechnical, structural, and special inspector.) So there were lots of points of reference of the state of things at time of abandonment.

Additionally the investigator from the CSLB has all this documentation and reached a determination of damages at the point of abandonment (more than $100k). As did his bond company when they determined damages. (Again, more than $100k.)

The only reason we wouldn’t go after this guy is that he may not have any assets to recover. His corporation’s assets consist of a PDA, leased truck, computer, fax/copier. If we can go after his personal assets (might be able to under RICO since we’re not his only victim) his house in Carlsbad is nice… but he’s behind on taxes on it AND paid a lot more for it than it’s currently worth. I suspect he’s underwater, bigtime. Plus he just paid a *large* settlement last year to another ripoff victim. (I don’t know the exact figure, but I know approx what the damages were and the homeowner was happy with the settlement… not trivial money – more than our damages).

We have to decide if going after him is throwing more good money after bad.

In the meantime, our companion unit is finished, my in-laws are living in it. All of that is very good. It just sucks to get ripped off in a major way.

Sorry for the long drawn out explanation.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]O.K Piggs, excuse the interruption please…

Ucgal,
Hopefully you have some good ideas or perhaps the attorney can provide some.Maybe you could hire an appraiser to calculate the value the contractor provided vs. the money paid. No matter what course of action you take you are probably going to need to establish a basis with a third party.I think and insurance appraiser or a contractor who normally works with insurance providers could do this. In your shoes I might try this and send it to the person and his insurer with a demand in an attempt to get the paper trail you will need established. Maybe you did all this already? As you probably know it will really come down to leverage against any means the contractor has to remedy the inequity.

I know some people you could call if you need to establish value. If they can’t help you I think they will point you in the right direction. I can give you or your husband an email if you want to discuss it off line. You probably have a handle on it, but just in case, I have some experience here.I am not looking for work. I don’t don’t get involved in these settlements professionally. I came by this experience by beign in a similar situation to yours and I know how helpless of an experience it felt like at first.

[/quote]
piggs – please forgive the continued interruption.

Russell – when the contractor abandoned the job (or started his serious threats to shake us down and walk)… we contacted a lawyer. We have until August to file against the thief. In the meantime we finished the project with a different GC. Per our attorney, our losses include the *actual* costs to finish the job, not just the cost remaining on the original contract. This makes sense because we had a hard time finding any contractor willing to take on a project started by someone else… for liability/warranty reasons. So the cost to complete was almost as high as the original contract price – despite being through the expensive grading and retaining walls. (Gotta love hillside development.)

We have several basis points for determining what state the original contractor left things. The new contractor clearly specified what he wasn’t responsible for. (To cover his liability/warranty). We also brought in the city inspectors. And we had our third party engineers (geotechnical, structural, and special inspector.) So there were lots of points of reference of the state of things at time of abandonment.

Additionally the investigator from the CSLB has all this documentation and reached a determination of damages at the point of abandonment (more than $100k). As did his bond company when they determined damages. (Again, more than $100k.)

The only reason we wouldn’t go after this guy is that he may not have any assets to recover. His corporation’s assets consist of a PDA, leased truck, computer, fax/copier. If we can go after his personal assets (might be able to under RICO since we’re not his only victim) his house in Carlsbad is nice… but he’s behind on taxes on it AND paid a lot more for it than it’s currently worth. I suspect he’s underwater, bigtime. Plus he just paid a *large* settlement last year to another ripoff victim. (I don’t know the exact figure, but I know approx what the damages were and the homeowner was happy with the settlement… not trivial money – more than our damages).

We have to decide if going after him is throwing more good money after bad.

In the meantime, our companion unit is finished, my in-laws are living in it. All of that is very good. It just sucks to get ripped off in a major way.

Sorry for the long drawn out explanation.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]O.K Piggs, excuse the interruption please…

Ucgal,
Hopefully you have some good ideas or perhaps the attorney can provide some.Maybe you could hire an appraiser to calculate the value the contractor provided vs. the money paid. No matter what course of action you take you are probably going to need to establish a basis with a third party.I think and insurance appraiser or a contractor who normally works with insurance providers could do this. In your shoes I might try this and send it to the person and his insurer with a demand in an attempt to get the paper trail you will need established. Maybe you did all this already? As you probably know it will really come down to leverage against any means the contractor has to remedy the inequity.

I know some people you could call if you need to establish value. If they can’t help you I think they will point you in the right direction. I can give you or your husband an email if you want to discuss it off line. You probably have a handle on it, but just in case, I have some experience here.I am not looking for work. I don’t don’t get involved in these settlements professionally. I came by this experience by beign in a similar situation to yours and I know how helpless of an experience it felt like at first.

[/quote]
piggs – please forgive the continued interruption.

Russell – when the contractor abandoned the job (or started his serious threats to shake us down and walk)… we contacted a lawyer. We have until August to file against the thief. In the meantime we finished the project with a different GC. Per our attorney, our losses include the *actual* costs to finish the job, not just the cost remaining on the original contract. This makes sense because we had a hard time finding any contractor willing to take on a project started by someone else… for liability/warranty reasons. So the cost to complete was almost as high as the original contract price – despite being through the expensive grading and retaining walls. (Gotta love hillside development.)

We have several basis points for determining what state the original contractor left things. The new contractor clearly specified what he wasn’t responsible for. (To cover his liability/warranty). We also brought in the city inspectors. And we had our third party engineers (geotechnical, structural, and special inspector.) So there were lots of points of reference of the state of things at time of abandonment.

Additionally the investigator from the CSLB has all this documentation and reached a determination of damages at the point of abandonment (more than $100k). As did his bond company when they determined damages. (Again, more than $100k.)

The only reason we wouldn’t go after this guy is that he may not have any assets to recover. His corporation’s assets consist of a PDA, leased truck, computer, fax/copier. If we can go after his personal assets (might be able to under RICO since we’re not his only victim) his house in Carlsbad is nice… but he’s behind on taxes on it AND paid a lot more for it than it’s currently worth. I suspect he’s underwater, bigtime. Plus he just paid a *large* settlement last year to another ripoff victim. (I don’t know the exact figure, but I know approx what the damages were and the homeowner was happy with the settlement… not trivial money – more than our damages).

We have to decide if going after him is throwing more good money after bad.

In the meantime, our companion unit is finished, my in-laws are living in it. All of that is very good. It just sucks to get ripped off in a major way.

Sorry for the long drawn out explanation.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]O.K Piggs, excuse the interruption please…

Ucgal,
Hopefully you have some good ideas or perhaps the attorney can provide some.Maybe you could hire an appraiser to calculate the value the contractor provided vs. the money paid. No matter what course of action you take you are probably going to need to establish a basis with a third party.I think and insurance appraiser or a contractor who normally works with insurance providers could do this. In your shoes I might try this and send it to the person and his insurer with a demand in an attempt to get the paper trail you will need established. Maybe you did all this already? As you probably know it will really come down to leverage against any means the contractor has to remedy the inequity.

I know some people you could call if you need to establish value. If they can’t help you I think they will point you in the right direction. I can give you or your husband an email if you want to discuss it off line. You probably have a handle on it, but just in case, I have some experience here.I am not looking for work. I don’t don’t get involved in these settlements professionally. I came by this experience by beign in a similar situation to yours and I know how helpless of an experience it felt like at first.

[/quote]
piggs – please forgive the continued interruption.

Russell – when the contractor abandoned the job (or started his serious threats to shake us down and walk)… we contacted a lawyer. We have until August to file against the thief. In the meantime we finished the project with a different GC. Per our attorney, our losses include the *actual* costs to finish the job, not just the cost remaining on the original contract. This makes sense because we had a hard time finding any contractor willing to take on a project started by someone else… for liability/warranty reasons. So the cost to complete was almost as high as the original contract price – despite being through the expensive grading and retaining walls. (Gotta love hillside development.)

We have several basis points for determining what state the original contractor left things. The new contractor clearly specified what he wasn’t responsible for. (To cover his liability/warranty). We also brought in the city inspectors. And we had our third party engineers (geotechnical, structural, and special inspector.) So there were lots of points of reference of the state of things at time of abandonment.

Additionally the investigator from the CSLB has all this documentation and reached a determination of damages at the point of abandonment (more than $100k). As did his bond company when they determined damages. (Again, more than $100k.)

The only reason we wouldn’t go after this guy is that he may not have any assets to recover. His corporation’s assets consist of a PDA, leased truck, computer, fax/copier. If we can go after his personal assets (might be able to under RICO since we’re not his only victim) his house in Carlsbad is nice… but he’s behind on taxes on it AND paid a lot more for it than it’s currently worth. I suspect he’s underwater, bigtime. Plus he just paid a *large* settlement last year to another ripoff victim. (I don’t know the exact figure, but I know approx what the damages were and the homeowner was happy with the settlement… not trivial money – more than our damages).

We have to decide if going after him is throwing more good money after bad.

In the meantime, our companion unit is finished, my in-laws are living in it. All of that is very good. It just sucks to get ripped off in a major way.

Sorry for the long drawn out explanation.

[UCGal]

[quote=Russell]O.K Piggs, excuse the interruption please…

Ucgal,
Hopefully you have some good ideas or perhaps the attorney can provide some.Maybe you could hire an appraiser to calculate the value the contractor provided vs. the money paid. No matter what course of action you take you are probably going to need to establish a basis with a third party.I think and insurance appraiser or a contractor who normally works with insurance providers could do this. In your shoes I might try this and send it to the person and his insurer with a demand in an attempt to get the paper trail you will need established. Maybe you did all this already? As you probably know it will really come down to leverage against any means the contractor has to remedy the inequity.

I know some people you could call if you need to establish value. If they can’t help you I think they will point you in the right direction. I can give you or your husband an email if you want to discuss it off line. You probably have a handle on it, but just in case, I have some experience here.I am not looking for work. I don’t don’t get involved in these settlements professionally. I came by this experience by beign in a similar situation to yours and I know how helpless of an experience it felt like at first.

[/quote]
piggs – please forgive the continued interruption.

Russell – when the contractor abandoned the job (or started his serious threats to shake us down and walk)… we contacted a lawyer. We have until August to file against the thief. In the meantime we finished the project with a different GC. Per our attorney, our losses include the *actual* costs to finish the job, not just the cost remaining on the original contract. This makes sense because we had a hard time finding any contractor willing to take on a project started by someone else… for liability/warranty reasons. So the cost to complete was almost as high as the original contract price – despite being through the expensive grading and retaining walls. (Gotta love hillside development.)

We have several basis points for determining what state the original contractor left things. The new contractor clearly specified what he wasn’t responsible for. (To cover his liability/warranty). We also brought in the city inspectors. And we had our third party engineers (geotechnical, structural, and special inspector.) So there were lots of points of reference of the state of things at time of abandonment.

Additionally the investigator from the CSLB has all this documentation and reached a determination of damages at the point of abandonment (more than $100k). As did his bond company when they determined damages. (Again, more than $100k.)

The only reason we wouldn’t go after this guy is that he may not have any assets to recover. His corporation’s assets consist of a PDA, leased truck, computer, fax/copier. If we can go after his personal assets (might be able to under RICO since we’re not his only victim) his house in Carlsbad is nice… but he’s behind on taxes on it AND paid a lot more for it than it’s currently worth. I suspect he’s underwater, bigtime. Plus he just paid a *large* settlement last year to another ripoff victim. (I don’t know the exact figure, but I know approx what the damages were and the homeowner was happy with the settlement… not trivial money – more than our damages).

We have to decide if going after him is throwing more good money after bad.

In the meantime, our companion unit is finished, my in-laws are living in it. All of that is very good. It just sucks to get ripped off in a major way.

Sorry for the long drawn out explanation.

[Borat]

arraya I think you are right on with what is happening. The only thing I will add is that it may not be as bad as so many are predicting. We are going to have to deal with mass unemployment, rioting, etc… I think we are heading towards collapse and breakup of the US just like happened in old Soviet Union. They can try to herd folks into camps but it’s not gonna work. There are too many people here and the govmt. is broke anyway. Now is the time to develop the skills to help make it through the transition. Panicking isn’t gonna help, in fact I think the panic is being started by those at the top to push asset prices down even further so that they can snap it all back up.

What is going to be valuable are real skills, quick thinking, and the ability to adapt to new realities. When the food stops coming to the supermarket people are gonna plant vegetables on the sides of the highway. When the police come to tell them to stop the people are gonna tell them to pack sand. Actually the police will probably help to grow veggies anyway because they’re gonna be hungry too.

The human race has survived a lot of tough things and we’re gonna survive this no problem. We might not dress as well and we might smell worse but we’ll still laugh and have parties and weddings and get drunk.

I think a lot of people realize that the system is busted and they have planned to profit from it by buying gold or certain stocks because they think they can get rich when it happens or at least survive better than their neighbors. Unfortunately they don’t realize that the prices are all rigged and manipulated by those at the top and no matter what you try to do they’re probably gonna get your money. Gold doubloons are easily stolen but abilities aren’t.

[Borat]

arraya I think you are right on with what is happening. The only thing I will add is that it may not be as bad as so many are predicting. We are going to have to deal with mass unemployment, rioting, etc… I think we are heading towards collapse and breakup of the US just like happened in old Soviet Union. They can try to herd folks into camps but it’s not gonna work. There are too many people here and the govmt. is broke anyway. Now is the time to develop the skills to help make it through the transition. Panicking isn’t gonna help, in fact I think the panic is being started by those at the top to push asset prices down even further so that they can snap it all back up.

What is going to be valuable are real skills, quick thinking, and the ability to adapt to new realities. When the food stops coming to the supermarket people are gonna plant vegetables on the sides of the highway. When the police come to tell them to stop the people are gonna tell them to pack sand. Actually the police will probably help to grow veggies anyway because they’re gonna be hungry too.

The human race has survived a lot of tough things and we’re gonna survive this no problem. We might not dress as well and we might smell worse but we’ll still laugh and have parties and weddings and get drunk.

I think a lot of people realize that the system is busted and they have planned to profit from it by buying gold or certain stocks because they think they can get rich when it happens or at least survive better than their neighbors. Unfortunately they don’t realize that the prices are all rigged and manipulated by those at the top and no matter what you try to do they’re probably gonna get your money. Gold doubloons are easily stolen but abilities aren’t.

[Borat]

arraya I think you are right on with what is happening. The only thing I will add is that it may not be as bad as so many are predicting. We are going to have to deal with mass unemployment, rioting, etc… I think we are heading towards collapse and breakup of the US just like happened in old Soviet Union. They can try to herd folks into camps but it’s not gonna work. There are too many people here and the govmt. is broke anyway. Now is the time to develop the skills to help make it through the transition. Panicking isn’t gonna help, in fact I think the panic is being started by those at the top to push asset prices down even further so that they can snap it all back up.

What is going to be valuable are real skills, quick thinking, and the ability to adapt to new realities. When the food stops coming to the supermarket people are gonna plant vegetables on the sides of the highway. When the police come to tell them to stop the people are gonna tell them to pack sand. Actually the police will probably help to grow veggies anyway because they’re gonna be hungry too.

The human race has survived a lot of tough things and we’re gonna survive this no problem. We might not dress as well and we might smell worse but we’ll still laugh and have parties and weddings and get drunk.

I think a lot of people realize that the system is busted and they have planned to profit from it by buying gold or certain stocks because they think they can get rich when it happens or at least survive better than their neighbors. Unfortunately they don’t realize that the prices are all rigged and manipulated by those at the top and no matter what you try to do they’re probably gonna get your money. Gold doubloons are easily stolen but abilities aren’t.

[Borat]

arraya I think you are right on with what is happening. The only thing I will add is that it may not be as bad as so many are predicting. We are going to have to deal with mass unemployment, rioting, etc… I think we are heading towards collapse and breakup of the US just like happened in old Soviet Union. They can try to herd folks into camps but it’s not gonna work. There are too many people here and the govmt. is broke anyway. Now is the time to develop the skills to help make it through the transition. Panicking isn’t gonna help, in fact I think the panic is being started by those at the top to push asset prices down even further so that they can snap it all back up.

What is going to be valuable are real skills, quick thinking, and the ability to adapt to new realities. When the food stops coming to the supermarket people are gonna plant vegetables on the sides of the highway. When the police come to tell them to stop the people are gonna tell them to pack sand. Actually the police will probably help to grow veggies anyway because they’re gonna be hungry too.

The human race has survived a lot of tough things and we’re gonna survive this no problem. We might not dress as well and we might smell worse but we’ll still laugh and have parties and weddings and get drunk.

I think a lot of people realize that the system is busted and they have planned to profit from it by buying gold or certain stocks because they think they can get rich when it happens or at least survive better than their neighbors. Unfortunately they don’t realize that the prices are all rigged and manipulated by those at the top and no matter what you try to do they’re probably gonna get your money. Gold doubloons are easily stolen but abilities aren’t.

[Borat]

arraya I think you are right on with what is happening. The only thing I will add is that it may not be as bad as so many are predicting. We are going to have to deal with mass unemployment, rioting, etc… I think we are heading towards collapse and breakup of the US just like happened in old Soviet Union. They can try to herd folks into camps but it’s not gonna work. There are too many people here and the govmt. is broke anyway. Now is the time to develop the skills to help make it through the transition. Panicking isn’t gonna help, in fact I think the panic is being started by those at the top to push asset prices down even further so that they can snap it all back up.

What is going to be valuable are real skills, quick thinking, and the ability to adapt to new realities. When the food stops coming to the supermarket people are gonna plant vegetables on the sides of the highway. When the police come to tell them to stop the people are gonna tell them to pack sand. Actually the police will probably help to grow veggies anyway because they’re gonna be hungry too.

The human race has survived a lot of tough things and we’re gonna survive this no problem. We might not dress as well and we might smell worse but we’ll still laugh and have parties and weddings and get drunk.

I think a lot of people realize that the system is busted and they have planned to profit from it by buying gold or certain stocks because they think they can get rich when it happens or at least survive better than their neighbors. Unfortunately they don’t realize that the prices are all rigged and manipulated by those at the top and no matter what you try to do they’re probably gonna get your money. Gold doubloons are easily stolen but abilities aren’t.

[Reality]

[quote=partypup]
I knew a tipping point had occurred in January when a friend of mine in Santa Maria applied for a part time job as a cashier at a Trader Joe’s in Santa Maria ($8/hour), and 1000 people showed up.
[/quote]

I’m not saying things are good, but you do realize this was a brand new store? At a well known company that probably advertised the jobs. It’s not like 1000 people were there for one cashier’s job.

In 1979 I went to apply at a new Big Bear in El Cajon and there were hundreds of people waiting in line. A poor economy like now, but not the end of the world.

[Reality]

[quote=partypup]
I knew a tipping point had occurred in January when a friend of mine in Santa Maria applied for a part time job as a cashier at a Trader Joe’s in Santa Maria ($8/hour), and 1000 people showed up.
[/quote]

I’m not saying things are good, but you do realize this was a brand new store? At a well known company that probably advertised the jobs. It’s not like 1000 people were there for one cashier’s job.

In 1979 I went to apply at a new Big Bear in El Cajon and there were hundreds of people waiting in line. A poor economy like now, but not the end of the world.

[Reality]

[quote=partypup]
I knew a tipping point had occurred in January when a friend of mine in Santa Maria applied for a part time job as a cashier at a Trader Joe’s in Santa Maria ($8/hour), and 1000 people showed up.
[/quote]

I’m not saying things are good, but you do realize this was a brand new store? At a well known company that probably advertised the jobs. It’s not like 1000 people were there for one cashier’s job.

In 1979 I went to apply at a new Big Bear in El Cajon and there were hundreds of people waiting in line. A poor economy like now, but not the end of the world.

[Reality]

[quote=partypup]
I knew a tipping point had occurred in January when a friend of mine in Santa Maria applied for a part time job as a cashier at a Trader Joe’s in Santa Maria ($8/hour), and 1000 people showed up.
[/quote]

I’m not saying things are good, but you do realize this was a brand new store? At a well known company that probably advertised the jobs. It’s not like 1000 people were there for one cashier’s job.

In 1979 I went to apply at a new Big Bear in El Cajon and there were hundreds of people waiting in line. A poor economy like now, but not the end of the world.

[Author]

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