(1) Personal damage lawsuits, (2) Qui Tam law, and (3) RICO law.
Qui Tam law (pronounced "kee tam") is is mentioned briefly in this chapter,
and thoroughly explained in the next Chapter.
RICO is the special law for Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations. It
is explained in detail in Chapter 8. Many other reward laws are in the rest
of this book. All of them are important, but personal damage civil suits
may be the most important legal tool for CrimeFighters.
This chapter concentrates on how CrimeFighters can obtain lawsuit awards in
lieu of or in addition to state or federal rewards.
Lawsuits are a viable remedy for victims of crime who were not compensated
for their injuries (physical, mental or monetary). This applies to police,
security guards and social workers who are physically assaulted by those
they try to help or arrest. It applies to anyone who may want to sue law-
breakers for personal damages caused by the lawbreaker's contribution to
their neighborhood crime rate and the adverse effects criminal activity
has on their basic freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The reasons for entertaining such a wild idea are:
(1) Almost all rewards are based on felonies. But, prosecutors routinely
downgrade felony charges to misdemeanors for first offenders. That scuttles
payment of pending rewards. Or the only charge is a misdemeanor (drunk
driving and using soft drugs, for example) and few rewards are available.
(2) There are seldom rewards paid for information on misdemeanors. Even
when they're paid, it's usually a token amount of $100. That's hardly worth
the effort to collect nor adequate compensation when many hours and dollars
are spent to gather the required evidence.
(3) Many felony prosecutions fail to obtain convictions because of errors
and omissions of law enforcement officers, incompetent prosecutors, or
technicalities. And, most rewards aren't paid when there's no conviction.
(4) Many criminal prosecutions are unsatisfactory to victims of crime.
When the justice system fails to deliver proper punishment to lawbreakers
because of plea bargaining, dismissal of charges, ineptitude of prosecutors
and/or police, or the lack of the state's financial resources to prosecute,
victims feel frustrated, cheated and betrayed. Victims can (and should) sue
lawbreakers for monetary compensation as an alternate form of punishment.
When defendants get off the hook on felony charges because of foul-ups or
technicalities, it may make the jury eager to punish the defendant as much
as possible via civil suits -- with maximum awards to obtain "justice."
(5) Police, security guards, and social workers are often verbally and
physically assaulted by those they try to help, or arrest. Until now, such
abuse was considered as an occupational hazard and endured. But, they can
initiate civil suits too, and sue for personal damages in their own name.
(6) Criminal activity in some areas makes it unsafe to go for leisurely
walks -- especially at night. Any criminal activity, drunk drivers, drug
users buying drugs from dealers in their neighborhood, or hookers plying
their trade on street corners, all deprive honest citizens their basic
freedoms: the right to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Anyone living in such a neighborhood are entitled by law to sue the guilty
persons for an award as compensation for the deprivation of their basic
freedoms, plus punitive damages, and their related legal costs.
(7) Criminal activity increases the cost of living. Burglary and related
insurance costs are passed on to consumers of products and services. And,
taxes are increased to pay the cost of extra police and the ever expanding
judicial and penal systems. Lawsuits against convicted criminals you catch
and prosecute help you recover these crime-related cost of living.
(8) Lawsuits provide CrimeFighters with leverage to obtain information on
criminal activity. If the defendant has insider information about criminal
activity, the information can be traded for an appropriate amount to offset
all or part of the civil suit award. In effect, CrimeFighters can buy the
information with the lawbreakers' own money!
CrimeFighters' Personal Damage Lawsuits
Only one criminal suit is possible for a specific crime to prevent anyone
from being tried twice for the same criminal offense (double jeopardy).
However, lawbreakers can be be charged with a criminal offense and at the
same time be sued via a civil suit -- for the same criminal act! Civil
suits are remedial while criminal suits are punitive. A civil suit does not
bar a criminal suit or vice versa. This chapters explains how you can use
criminal and civil suits at the same time to obtain a unique advantage.
A conviction or guilty plea is conclusive proof you need to sue lawbreakers
for personal damages in a lawsuit.
Said personal damages are "a serious loss of your civil rights because
of the defendant's criminal activity and the resultant detrimental effect
on your basic rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Your lawsuits ask that convicted lawbreakers pay you an appropriate amount
for their proportionate share of personal damages they have inflicted upon
you by their negligent criminal activity in your neighborhood. The amount
of the lawsuit award depends mainly on what defendants can afford to pay.
Lawsuits aren't practical if defendants have no personal assets. But not
all lawbreakers are penniless or paupers. When they have sufficient assets,
or steady jobs, they can be sued by victims for suitable compensation.
The main reason personal damage lawsuits for misdemeanors are seldom used
by citizens is because legal costs of many thousands of dollars are usually
far more than most lawbreakers can afford to pay.
The high cost of legal fees often make it impractical to sue for small
amounts from the working class. Until now, $500 and $1,000 lawsuits against
people without assets were impractical.
The first step to solving this problem is to eliminate lawyers' fees by
doing it yourself. (A do-it-yourself litigation kit is available. More
information on the kit at the end of this chapter.)
The next step is to make the lawsuit demand reasonable, in line with
the offense and ability to pay. Eliminating the high cost of legal fees
can reduce a simple lawsuit demand to a few hundred or a thousand dollars
or so. That's what most the majority of defendants can afford to pay.
Suing lawbreakers for modest amounts is a lot easier than you might think
because virtually none of them will go to trial. CrimeFighter lawsuits will
almost always be settled out of court or awarded by summary judgment!
Civil Remedies May be Better than Criminal Charges
Civil remedies such as personal damage or class action lawsuits can be more
effective against affluent lawbreakers than criminal suits because there is
no legally defined limit on the dollar amount of the "fine", and the cost
of prosecution (the lawsuit) is paid by the defendant who loses the suit.
While no jail time can be levied in a civil suit, the fine (award) can be
as much as possible to remove accumulated profits from illegal activities.
Fines are often used as punishment, but many laws are woefully out of date.
Prostitution is an example where the fines are relatively small and easily
affordable. Fines are not on par with the actual cost of investigation and
prosecution. Hookers consider such fines like salesmen consider parking
tickets -- as part of the cost of doing business. Perhaps that's why many
such violations are often ignored by police: it takes too much time, gets
very little money in return, and has virtually no deterrent value.
Insufficient Evidence May be Sufficient
Example: A pimp may have a few women working for him. Snaring the hookers
may be easy, but getting enough evidence against the pimp for criminal
conviction may be difficult. If you can connect the pimp to a hooker with a
preponderence of evidence, the pimp could be sued for personal damages and
criminal negligence: contributing to the crime rate in your community. The
award sought could be for (say) $100,000. While no jail time or criminal
convictions are given to the pimp, the $100,000 lawsuit award will cause
far more distress and pain and suffering than a few months in jail.
The preponderence of evidence: The pimp owns a $50,000 automobile, flashes
large rolls of money and wears a lot of gold jewelry. He appears to be very
rich, but it's known he hasn't worked at a regular job for years. He has
been seen consorting with one or more currently unemployed women (who are
convicted prostitutes). The CrimeFighter takes photographs or videotapes
showing the women in their usual provocative and skimpy attire (hooker's
uniform) talking to the accused on numerous occasions within a week or so,
indicating a close relationship.
Proving his innocence, where he got the money to support his lavish life
style, is almost impossible for most criminals. Thus he has no defense.
Most of it is purely circumstantial evidence leading to a conclusion of
guilt. That evidence wouldn't stand up in a criminal proceeding but may be
more than enough for two-thirds of civil suit jurors who would probably
agree the pimp is guilty as accused. A court award (paid to the Crime-
Fighter instead of the court) is similar to a fine, but can be much larger,
to take away the accumulated profit from the criminal activity.
Same thing for drug dealers who are unemployed but own expensive homes,
automobiles, and boats. If they can't prove where the money comes from to
support their lavish lifestyles and possessions, they have little or no
defense. All you need is documented proof of ownership of the assets as
well as proof of little or no other income. Add a few photographs or
videotapes to support your allegations of criminal activity. That may not
be enough for a grand jury, but may be sufficient for a civil suit.
The above example can be applied to many other known lawbreakers police
can't arrest because of a lack of conclusive evidence. Police don't use
civil suits because that's not how the game of cops and robbers is played.
But, lawsuits can be used by CrimeFighters as a viable means of prosecution
of known but unproven lawbreakers. Civil suits are easier to win, and you
don't have to be a cop or make arrests. The Rules of Discovery in civil
suits let you dig for information that may lead to an arrest for other
crimes. Civil liberty restraints that tie the hands of police do not apply
to citizen arrests or civil suits. Crime-Fighters can take action when
police can't. That's Justice, CrimeFighter style.
(News item: Olympia Washington, Oct 16, 1992.
"Law enforcement authorities can continue seizing homes of drug-trade
suspects even though they haven't been tried in court, the State Supreme
Court ruled. The court seizures amount to a civil action independent of any
pending criminal actions.")
Civil Suits vs Criminal Law
Civil suits are easier than criminal suits to obtain convictions by a
preponderance of evidence -- meaning the side with the best argument or
evidence wins. It may include circumstantial evidence, and hearsay evidence
is sometimes allowed. In criminal suits, the evidence must prove beyond a
reasonable doubt and there must be a guilty verdict from all 12 jurors. By
comparison, civil suits require only that a majority of the jury (usually
two-thirds) find the defendant liable. Prosecutors of civil suits don't
have to show absolute proof of "guilt" as they must in criminal cases. In
civil suits, the burden of proof of innocence is on the defendant!
The person or property owner's assumed innocence of the actual crime is
generally not a defense. The person or property has the burden of proving
their innocence. This makes it more difficult for defendants, and much
easier for prosecutors.
CrimeFighters' Strategy
While you have to be a lawyer to represent other parties, when you are the
plaintiff (or defendant) you have the right to represent yourself. Injured
parties (CrimeFighters) can sue lawbreakers, without a lawyer, when they
have the legal standing. The legal standing is met when you claim personal
damages were inflicted on you by the (alleged or proven) criminal activity
of the defendant in the suit.
Negotiation, not plea bargaining, is used in civil suits. The names are
different but the procedure and goals are the same: a trade for mutual
benefit. If CrimeFighters can't get money from defendants, get information.
In some cases, information of criminal activity may be more valuable than
a $1,000 cash award. Sometimes you can get both!
You can usually get paid at least $500 for misdemeanors and up to $5,000
for felony violations. You will settle the suit out of court 99.9% of the
time. When you can't get all the money (or only a small fraction of what
you ask) you can offer to settle the suit if they provide information on
past or pending criminal activity.
If that sounds like the tactics used by police in coercing drug users to
get information on drug dealers, it is. And, it works.
The big payoff comes when you sue the big players, the pushers who are
connected to the misdemeanor (or felony) violation. You need to build a
case against them. The sworn statements from the little fish you catch help
you build the case against the sharks with deep pockets and insurance, or
against drug dealers with visible and tangible assets. Then the lawsuit can
be for a hundred thousands of dollars, or more.
You can also charge for your undercover investigation work as part of the
legal costs to prosecute the case. If the case involves little personal
risk of bodily harm, you can charge lawbreakers the going rate for private
investigators, about $60 to $75 per hour. If it involves dangerous work,
with a greater risk of injury or death, you would be justified in charging
$150+ an hour for your time.
Drunk Drivers and Drug Users
Primary targets for CrimeFighters are drunk drivers, drug users, and drug
dealers, mainly because they are in abundance everywhere. While not all of
them are found in bars, a considerable number are. Bars are known to be
favorite businesses for career criminals to launder their dirty money. Bars
are favorite meeting places to plan or conduct illegal transactions, dope
dealing, prostitution and fencing stolen property. And, CrimeFighters can
frequent such places to make contacts. So, that's where the search begins.
But, you can't just walk up to people in bars and demand answers to your
questions about illegal activity. You need leverage. That's why you go
after drunk drivers leaving bars and favorite hangouts of criminals. You
report them to police to make the DUI arrests. When they're convicted, you
sue them for personal damages. Then you lean on them, offering to dismiss
your lawsuit for $200 (your out-of-pocket costs) if they provide informa-
tion on criminal activity. Either they pay you for your time controlling
DUI drivers, or you trade their money for information on criminal activity.
That's the game plan.
(The Drunk Driver Terminator Patrol is in Chapter 9. The war on drug
dealers is detailed in chapter 10.)
Five hundred to a thousand dollars (whatever the defendant can afford) may
be a small sum for a lawsuit, but may be a sufficient reward for a Crime-
Fighter for each drunk driver or drug user he snares in his net.
The small amount is to encourage early lawsuit settlement for convicted
drunk drivers whereby you ask for the costs of your investigation. You
aren't trying to bankrupt the person who has already been punished via
traffic court. All ask is to be paid for your time, and/or get leads.
While the surveillance time might be just a few hours, you can include the
time to prepare and file the legal papers, and the time involved in the
Discovery process - if it goes that far. It should be easy to accumulate
about 10 hours or so which can be billed at $50 to $75 an hour.
The easy settlements can provide you with a bread-and-butter income. That
is, if you consider $130,000 a year in that category. (If you average $500
per drunk driver or drug user, and snare at least one every eight hour
shift, and work five shifts a week, that's about what it comes to.) But it
doesn't include the big-dollar awards from negligent bar owners and others
with deep pockets. That could be an extra $130,000 a year.
Besides the drunk driver income and getting leads on criminal activity,
your secondary goal is to get at the bar owners who serve drinks to people
who are obviously drunk. OR to find and prosecute bar owners and managers
who encourage, condone, or are participating in illegal activities such as
prostitution, drug dealing or fencing stolen property. To get negligent bar
owners, convicted drunk drivers have to be "encouraged" to help you build a
case against them on criminal charges or a violation of liquor laws. $1,000
lawsuits against drunk drivers and drug users are effective leverage you
can use to get that information.
The Rules of Discovery
Unlike criminal suits, where the accused can plead the Fifth Amendment and
refuse to provide witness against himself, civil suits require defendants
to provide free and easy access to all relevant records, and to answer all
questions asked on interrogatories (questionnaires) or by depositions
(sworn statements).
The concept of Discovery is an acknowledged invasion of privacy sanctioned
by the courts. That's a strong reason most litigants prefer to settle the
suit even if they believe they could win. Most people have secrets of one
kind or another that they'd rather not be forced to disclose (or might) by
an indirect line of questioning, or by an audit of their financial records.
When in court, the same questions might be asked and the answers extracted
under oath. Any lies made in the discovery process or in court, and later
brought to light, will result in a felony charge of perjury.
If it's proven the defendant lied, or failed to disclose information that
was requested via the Rules of Discovery, he usually loses the lawsuit.
The rules of Discovery provide a legalized fishing expedition for lawyers
(and Crimefighters) to back up initial charges or find new evidence that
could be even more damaging to the defendant. (Disgruntled employees may
provide information on criminal activity such as fencing stolen property,
drug dealing or money laundering). Lawyers often use Discovery and the
taking of numerous and lengthy Depositions to intimidate defendants and
encourage easy settlements.
If the person being sued resents the intrusion of privacy, and fails to
attend scheduled meetings, the court can levy a fine as well as assume
their liability (or guilt) and award the lawsuit dollar amount.
In a lawsuit over a slip-and-fall case in a Walmart store, Sam Walton was
ordered to attend a deposition hearing. Evidently Sam thought his time was
too valuable to waste on a small-scale lawsuit for just $36,000. The court
was irked that anyone, no matter how big they are, can ignore the court's
orders with impunity. The court ordered Walmart to pay the award of $36,000
plus a fine (for contempt of court, presumably) of $11,550,000!
Fighting a lawsuit can cost thousands of dollars. Most are settled out of
court. In the case of a drunk driver who can afford it, you can settle for
$500 to $2,500, depending on your time, expenses, and what they can afford.
That's for EACH drunk driver or drug user.
A lawyer trick mentioned in "The Litigation Explosion", (a book by Walter
K. Olson, and recommended for CrimeFighters) is an incorrect filing of
papers will cause the paperwork to be returned to you by the court clerk
for correction. In such an event, the defendant will have received a copy
and the notice of your suit. They will realize you can correct the filing
mistake and get it back on the court calendar. At that point, they may want
to negotiate it outside of the court's supervision. They won't want it to
go to court, be under the spotlight, and get bad publicity. (Business and
liquor licenses may be jeopardized by the adverse publicity.)
Out-of-Court Settlements
Crimefighter civil suits against convicted drunk drivers and drug users
(and others) will hardly ever go to trial when evidence of wrongdoing has
already been established. Virtually all of them will be settled out of
court because they have no valid defense: they've either pled guilty or
were convicted of a violation of law. When a convicted lawbreaker doesn't
want to settle out of court, summary judgment may be used to bypass the
trial. That's possible when evidence of liability (guilt) is available.
Summary Judgments
Summary judgment is granted when the evidence shows conclusive proof of
liability which cannot be disputed by the defendant. A guilty plea or
conviction by a jury trial in criminal court is proof of liability. It's
a fact criminal activity seriously erodes the quality of life and puts
fear of personal and financial harm in the hearts and minds of all honest
citizens. Both are indisputable facts. Together, they satisfy the Court's
requirement of conclusive proof to obtain a summary judgment.
All the Court has to decide is whether the amount you ask for damages is
reasonable. If you ask for a reasonable amount, there should be no problem.
That's why virtually 99% of them will be either settled out of court in the
early stages, or awarded by a summary judgment after conviction.
Here's what the Court's have said in regards to summary judgment:
"Summary judgment is a disposition which effectively removes the contro-
versy from the province of the trier of fact, and resolves it as a matter
of law. It should not be awarded, accordingly, unless a review of the
record satisfies the Court "there is no genuine issue as to any material
fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
If the Court's review of "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrog-
atories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits" show the
absence of any factual issues to be resolved at trial, summary judgment
should be granted to the party entitled to prevail."
Negligent Entrustment
In a litigation case, mentioned in "The Litigation Explosion," a 92-year-
old widow almost lost her house after lawyers won a $950,000 jury verdict.
Mrs. Wilson's offense was that she had negligently entrusted or loaned the
money to a nephew to buy a car. The car was loaned by the nephew (a marine)
to a buddy who had an accident.
Common sense and our concept of justice would say Mrs. Wilson had nothing
to do with the accident. Not so, said the lawyers. They claimed negligent
entrustment. Of course, the real reason the widow was targeted was simply
because the marines involved had insufficient assets to gain anything from
a lawsuit. The lawyers looked further and found Mrs. Wilson had insurance
as well as a house.
Mrs. Wilson lived in Texas and had never set foot in North Carolina, where
the accident occurred. That was no defense. No matter where you live or
where the accident (or wrong) takes place, you can be sued by other
parties you never met in states you've never personally visited as long as
it can be proven you are connected in any way. Mrs. Wilson's lawyers
appealed. The Federal Court of Appeals, in 1961, said she could be legally
forced to come into North Carolina to stand trial under the State's long
arm law.
While you and I may deplore the greed of lawyers in going after 92-year-old
widows, the case tells something of value to CrimeFighters:
No one is safe from the long arm of the law if they are connected in any
way, whether for profit or otherwise, and distance is no barrier.
Olson's book tells a few other examples how anyone, however remotely
connected, can be included in lawsuits. For drunk drivers you can include
in the suit any place or person who provided the alcohol (or drugs) plus
the manager of the business.
This allows you to include owners, investors and employees who may have
been or are involved in other criminal activity. Naming them in the same
lawsuit lets you use the Rules of Discovery to ask embarrassing questions
from them, or from employees, to obtain incriminating information. The
bigger the net, the more fish you catch, and the more leads you'll have.
If the business is owned by a corporation, officers and directors can be
sued for negligence. In closely held non-public corporations (with just a
few shareholders), shareholders could be charged with negligence by not
providing guidance to the directors. You can include the corporation that
owns the bar or rents a building to the bar. All of them are connected and
can be named in the one lawsuit. While they may be innocent by not directly
lifting the glass to a person's lips, their sharing in the profits in any
way provides a link and indirect connection to (possibly) RICO civil suits.
The charge of gross negligence, negligent entrustment, criminal negligence,
or plain negligence, may be sufficient.
When you find violators of misdemeanors and felonies who have been either
encouraged or facilitated by any person, group or business, the pushers,
profiteers, or instigators may be liable for damages, punitive fines, and
your costs of investigation to obtain evidence.
It's more effective when CrimeFighters make the big players and profiteers
pay huge fines (or awards). When lawsuits are hanging over their heads, it
will significantly reduce the incentive to be pushers for profit. Those
who have knowingly contributed to illegal and irresponsible behavior, and
profited immensely and got away with it, won't get away with it any more.
Qui Tam law - The Right To Be The Prosecutor
Qui Tam law is a reward law designed specifically for CrimeFighters 400
years ago! Old English Common Law (Qui Tam law) says that anyone who has a
financial interest in the outcome of any civil or criminal suit has the
right to be the prosecutor in the name of the king (government) as well as
himself. A pending reward for a CrimeFighter provides the legal standing
necessary to assume the role of state or federal prosecutor.
(In case you wondered, Qui Tam law is alive and well in America, and has
been upheld by the Supreme Court. Details are in the next chapter.)
Asserting your legal right to be prosecutor provides a unique advantage for
CrimeFighters: If, during a civil suit you uncover information on criminal
activity, you may have sufficient evidence for an arrest. As prosecutor,
you have legal leverage to use plea bargaining to lesser charges for an
out-of-court settlement of your civil suit.
Converting Fines to Awards
As prosecutors, CrimeFighters can allow plea bargaining to lesser charges
the same as, and for the same reasons, regular prosecutors allow and
encourage it. But lesser charges might reduce or cancel pending federal
rewards. To offset the loss of pending federal rewards, CrimeFighters'
lawsuits can be used to transfer pending fines to lawsuit awards. The end
result is the same for defendants and the judicial system. But, in this
case, the fines (converted to lawsuit awards) are based on the original
charges and accumulated profits of illegal activity, not the plea-bargained
lesser charges and small fines. That's more appropriate for CrimeFighters
as well as to properly punish lawbreakers.
Normally, when an informant provides the information leading to an arrest
and conviction, the tipster gets paid half the fines and forfeitures. The
other half is paid to the law enforcement agency who makes the arrest and
does the prosecution to compensate them for their time and costs. If the
Crimefighter makes the arrest and does the prosecution, he should collect
all of it. By shifting the fine to a lawsuit award, he accomplishes that
goal, and lawbreakers are properly punished.
If the defendant pleads not guilty and wants a jury trial, you can mention
that judges are prone to punish suspects for causing the extra time and
legal costs of a jury trial. State and federal prosecutors, and judges, use
this threat to get a quick conviction to save court time. (More information
on prosecutors and plea bargaining is in Chapter 26.)
You can offer deals which provide you with maximum awards in exchange for
lighter sentences. The public benefits with this arrangement. Payment of
the reward/award doesn't come from taxpayers. The lawbreaker is punished by
losing the profits from illegal activity and taxpayers won't have to pay
$25,000 a year for the felon's room and board in already overcrowded jails.
Crimefighters' Advantages Summarized
(1) When you obtain information on alleged (or known) criminal activity,
you can initiate a lawsuit to use the Rules of Discovery to compel suspects
to provide you with additional information, and to compel witnesses to make
statements under oath (depositions). When the suspect is worried you might
uncover incriminating evidence, he will want to settle the suit out of
court to get you off his back. But, while your lawsuit may be settled, it
doesn't mean you have to forget it. You can then pass on the information to
the FBI and negotiate for a reward for the information you have obtained.
When you have sufficient evidence of criminal violations, you can:
(2) Lay charges and possibly make the arrest yourself, or ask for police
assistance. When you make the arrest or provide information leading to
the arrest, you are eligible for rewards plus Qui Tam to be the prosecutor.
Take charge and maintain control of the prosecution.
(3) Use RICO laws for prosecution, plus any others that may be applicable.
Use pending criminal charges as leverage for settling civil suit awards.
(4) Plea bargaining may reduce original charges to a misdemeanor. When the
suspect has sufficient assets, your personal damage lawsuit will pay a
comparable reward via lawsuit awards.
(5) In addition to a RICO criminal suit, also initiate a RICO civil suit.
RICO civil suits pays 50% of fines and forfeitures to the person providing
information leading to such fines and forfeitures, with no limit on the
amount. Forfeitures include bail money if the suspect skips bail and
becomes a fugitive. You get 50% of all of the fines and forfeitures.
(6) Also initiate a CrimeFighter personal damage lawsuit to transfer as
much money as possible from the RICO civil suit to your personal damage
lawsuit. The lawsuit award to include the costs of your investigation and
related expenses. This you keep 100%.
(a) If the lawbreaker settles your personal lawsuit out of court, you get
paid immediately or within a short period of time. Since a lawsuit award
is not a reward, you are still eligible for federal rewards.
(b) If no out-of-court settlement is reached, the lawsuit can be held in
abeyance. A later guilty plea (even to lesser charges) or jury conviction
of criminal charges related to your civil suit, provides proof of personal
damages. You can then apply for summary judgment to be awarded the sum of
money or physical assets asked for in your CrimeFighter lawsuit.
(7) If any law enforcement agency wants to take over the prosecution to get
credit for it as well as get 50% of the fines and forfeitures, you can
negotiate a suitable reward to compensate you for your time and risk.
(8) If the defendant doesn't show up at scheduled meetings to contest the
civil suit, he could, by default, lose the lawsuit.
(9) If the suspect shows up to defend the civil suit, he may be arrested
and thrown in jail and tried on the criminal charges. While he may be
released on bail, as prosecutor you can ask for a high bail amount. If he
skips bail, you get half of the forfeited bail money via RICO lawsuits.
(10) When defendants don't have the ability to pay fines (as awards) the
lawbreakers can be turned over to the FBI for prosecution. Apply for $500
federal rewards under 3059 (and 886 when drugs are involved) for a total
of $1,000 each, per person.
When you have sufficient evidence, you win no matter which way it goes.
Collecting the Money
When a fine can't be paid in cash, or financed in one way or another, any
assets defendants own - cars, homes, businesses - can be seized and sold to
satisfy the outstanding debt. (Bankruptcy laws do not allow criminal-
related fines to be discharged via bankruptcy proceedings.)
Settlement of lawsuits can be more flexible than fines. Monthly payments
can be arranged if the defendant has a job or business. The interest rate
on time payments can be at 2% per month to encourage fast payment. If the
defendant has credit cards and credit available, he will be encouraged to
get a cash advance at lower interest rates and pay off the lawsuit award.
After many months of being an active Crimefighter, you may wind up with
$100,000 or more on your Crimefighter's Accounts Receivable. At 2% per
month, the monthly interest alone would be $2,000, or about $25,000 a year.
Even if, in some cases, the debt is recognized as uncollectible from
debtors, it gives you a valid reason to visit them, and apply pressure,
to provide you with crime-related information instead of cash payments.
You may be able to recruit a few dozen or a hundred or more people who
can be coaxed into being bird dogs for you to locate and report criminal
activity. Payment being a suitable reduction of the outstanding balance.
And, in some cases, some of your bird dogs may be converted to full-time
confidential informants for cash payments that are twice as much as they
could get paid by Crime Stoppers or We-Tip.
Filling in Lawsuit Forms
Filling in Crimefighter's customized litigation forms with names, addresses
and other information you have at hand, is like filling out a credit
application. In this case, each application is worth about $1,000. But,
unlike credit card applications, you can make out as many as you like.
The number of criminals and CrimeFighter lawsuits are virtually unlimited!
It's been said that 70% of suits are settled out of court. That includes
many suits without merit. You can raise that to 99% if you have sufficient
evidence. You won't have to know much beyond how to file the papers (or
misfile them) to initiate a lawsuit. A little clerical work to fill in the
forms, and some leg work to walk the papers to the filing clerk, plus a
filing fee, is all that's required. With a little instruction and pretyped,
fill-in-the-blank forms, anyone can do it.
If the award sought is a very large amount, the defendant may choose to
fight it in court. In that event, you can easily sub-contract your case to
a lawyer on a fee-splitting arrangement. Most litigation lawyers do this
routinely ("sharing the work"). If you have sufficient evidence, lawyers
will be eager to take the case. The deal would be that your lawyer will pay
you your investigation costs (which will be also significantly increased)
from his legal fees and out-of-pocket expenses awarded to him by the court.
What if you lose the suit? "The Litigation Explosion" explains that costs
are usually awarded to the successful prosecutor because it's in the best
interests of justice to do so. However, the defendant's legal costs are not
charged to the plaintiff if the plaintiff loses the lawsuit. That too, is
to encourage civil suits to obtain justice. If you are the plaintiff, and
your lawyer takes the case on a contingency basis, and you lose, all you
lose is your time, plus out-of-pocket expenses of both sides (about $250).
The defendant has to pay for his own legal defense win or lose. That's a
lopsided deal, and may be unfair, but that's American justice.
In Canada and other English-based countries, if you lose, you are required
to pay the defendant's legal costs.
But, if the lawbreaker has been convicted, or pled guilty in the criminal
action, there is no valid defense of their liability! A lawbreaker's
lawyer will recognize that too, and recommend an early settlement.
Do-it-Yourself Litigation Kits
The most important thing when you use do-it-yourself litigation kits is,
lawsuits of relatively small amounts become possible and practical. That
alone may open the door for you to sue dozens to hundreds of lawbreakers,
and scumbags who do you dirty in one way or another during your lifetime.
All it takes about ten minutes to fill in the blank spaces of standard,
pre-printed forms. And all it costs is about $150 (in Yuma, AZ) to file the
papers with the county clerk. You can easily do it yourself. In this
situation, $750 to $1,500 lawsuits are affordable, and may be better than
nothing! (If you win, you usually are awarded costs, which includes the
filing fees, your investigation time, and related out-of-pocket expenses.
A $750 award, plus costs, would pay you about $1,250.)
If the most you can lose (by not collecting) is less than $200, you can
afford to sue lawbreakers for small amounts of $1,000 to $5,000. But, of
course, you aren't limited to small amounts. The limitation is only on what
defendants can afford to pay. If they have liability insurance, the ceiling
is much, much higher -- often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
All CrimeFighters need is a Litigation Kit to join in the fun and games
lawyer's play. Then, if the State or Federal prosecutor elbows you out of a
felony case (somehow) and you obtain no satisfactory compensation, you can
use the courts via civil suits to extract compensation from lawbreakers.
CrimeFighters' Litigation Kit
I asked a local lawyer how much he would charge for a customized, sample
set of fill-in-the-blank forms, plus instructions, required to initiate a
CrimeFighter lawsuit and a RICO civil suit. Included would be a few sample
interrogatory forms, request for subpoenas, deposition forms, etc. His
quote was "around $5,000 or so, depending on how long it takes."
Not having that much loose change in my jeans, I decided to forego having
a lawyer prepare the forms. I had planned to copy them and make them avail-
able to CrimeFighters. But, there's another way it can be done: by sharing
the costs among a few hundred CrimeFighters. That way, preparation costs
are shared by many instead of borne by yours truly.
If you'd like to participate in funding the legal costs to prepare all the
forms for civil litigation, customized for CrimeFighters' use as outlined
in this chapter, here's my proposition:
Prepay $20 towards a "CrimeFighter Litigation Kit." When I have enough
money to pay the lawyer, I'll have him prepare the documents. When they are
delivered to me, I'll make copies and mail them to you.
The membership application form at the end of this book contains a check-
off box to indicate you are pre-paying $20 and are entitled to a copy
of the Crimefighters' Litigation Kit. I'll mail a copy to you when it's
ready. (Or your money back if there is insufficient financial support to
have it done.)
