I am being sued

Have any of you been to small claims court concerning SL
IT seems an x gril friend is suing me for interstate wire fraud claiming i stole a sim from her.

The sim was purchased from her while she was at my house visiting then when we broke up a month later she takes me to court

So i guess the Question is

How does small claims court work and will she be able to get 5000 usd from me and what is my best line of defence

thanks in advance

without more details its hard to say but i would contact a lawyer if i was you and quickly

Call a lawyer.

*nods* Definitely get a lawyer, preferably one who specializes in virtual goods, because this is still a rather gray area in the US.. and let us know how it turns out.

If you 'have' her sim - give it back.
If you don't - no worries.
Or what Arua said.

Hopefully you have the payment you gave her listed on your bank statement.

This is really a bad place to look for legal advice - anything you say here is public and will be admissable. Most people here are not attorneys and can't answer your question with any degree of legal accuracy, and the ones that are attorneys know better than to expose themselves to the liability of giving you legal advice in a public forum on the internet. Also, the rules differ for every court, so the answer to your question depends entirely on which small claims court you are in and the nature of the lawsuit. Any advice you get here other than to contact a local attorney is highly suspect.

I'm not trying to be rude or avoid your question - please don't take my answer like that. You need to contact an attorney in the jurisdiction where the suit was filed immediately and you need to not say anything further here. It's likely your ex-girlfreind knows about these forums and you don't need to accidentally say anything that she might be able to use against you.

What Trout meant to say was that for a nominal fee of US$295/mo, he might be able hold it in escrow for you till the court settles the matter.

Oh, and maybe she'd agree to move it to Judge Judy's court: with CSI kind of a disappointment, SL can use any publicity we can get.

And, get a lawyer. Hope it works out.

Your right i had not thought of that and will be contacting an attorny first of the year thank you for all the advies every one

Does small claims court even have jurisdiction over an interstate wire fraud case?

Wouldn't that require some kind of federal court?

If the transaction took place while you were both in the same town (she was visiting), how does it become interstate wire fraud?

Sounds odd to me. Could this possibly just be a case of empty threats? Have you actually been served with any kind of legal notice of a lawsuit? Are you actually being sued or just being threatened with a lawsuit? There is a huge difference.

if you actually bought her sim, and it is now in your name with SL, then wouldn;t she have had to tell SL to transfer it to you??

This is speculation on my part, but - she could be saying in her claim that she did not perform this transaction, and that he did it without her knowledge. She could then have LL show that the IP for the request came from him, not her.

He is going to need to talk to a lawyer and try to produce as much documentation as possible.

LL explicity states not to give out your password to "anyone:" for these reasons and many more..if she proved that he did it from his IP address then how?..did he guess her password?...probably not. She would be hardpressed to explain why she handed over her password. There may even be a clause explaining rights given up if that does infact happen.

~Lana Tomba

also you get an island transfer initiation email and an email when transfer is done, you must have hacked her email provider aswell then as it took her 1 month to realise her island is gone...

yea right lmao

ok papers were serverd on me today

it was main land sim


attorneys are not allowed in small claims court in virginia it seems

so it should get interesting and she is suing for 5000 usd the max allwoed in small claims court
the only good part is i do not have to prove i do not owe her she has to prove i do

Wait until she actually serves you something legal (to make sure you don't spend money dealing with empty threats). Then get a lawyer. Don't destroy anything.

Teh papers were served today so yes it is in progress and not an empty threat
I can consult a lawyer but they are not allowed in small claims court lol guess to keep the price down

but i will contact one for advice and what all information i should bring with me
it seems that for a 60 usd filing fee you can sue any one for any thing

aww durn your'e from Virginia too?..Thats my state..I hate hearing that our southern sweetness goes sour from time to time.

~Lana Tomba

what papers were served?...and also check with LL to get as much info as you can on the rights a resident gives up when divulging their password to another resident. it may just be a thing where LL can say "hey not our battle"..passwords were exchanged.

Whoever is in the right..goodluck to you and yours.OH and when were monies transffered if any?..and were they lindens?If so there's documnetation of that right?..or is that only in the past most recent month?

~Lana Tomba

they never diulged there pass word lol

she recieved cash for hte sim and deeded it to my land group

ok i guess enought on this as its going all over the place lol thanks for all the information

I say good luck to the person who is in the right, and none to the one who is in the wrong. There are usually 2 sides to a story, and there's no way of knowing what happened from one side only.

That is true Dragger, but if I were you I would still take to court all of my bank statements pretaining to the transaction or credit card transaction statements. Also print a copy of your SL account history out showing the exchange of lindens to her. You should also take a copy of the Linden to USD exchange rate so you can prove the amount that you paid to her. You want to be able to back up anything you say in court.

I hope she lives close, as you have found out that she had to sue you in the county that you live in. Good God what a way to meet someone you know in SL. When is your court date. If you dont have all of your proof ready by time your court date comes up be sure and ask for an extension early on.

Good luck honey.. I wish you the best.

This is the very reason that any major transaction involving large sums of RL money should involve RL paperwork. Notarized bills of sale, etc. Verbal agreements, while allowable in some states, are never a good idea in cases like this.

Wait, let me see if I got this right:

1. Romance.
2. She logs into her account.
3. She deeds land to your group.
4. End romance.
5. Sue for custody of land.

Doesn't it say to make sure you trust the group/group owners when you deed land? Doesn't it give you warnings about it? And why would she deed land to a group that she's not an owner in?

Or did the land get deeded, romance soured, she drove home and while she was out you sold the land to yourself from the group?

Don't answer that. There's always two sides to the story, I'm just presenting two that pop into my head at first thought.

My advice? See an attorney then buy a nice suit, have it tailored to fit properly, contact LL and ask what they may be able to give to you without a court order and take all paperwork you might have regarding the transaction to court with you, whether you think it's relevant or not.

While I've never had to deal with anything in VA, in TX, if you come to small claims court with the 3 P's (prompt, presentable and prepared), 85% of the time, you win. (4 for 0 so far myself in small claims in the last 6 years-RL business related, not personally)

Good luck.

A

Unfortunately for her she will have to prove she owned the said land in the first place, which she did not. She leased land from LLs and was therefor never owner of said land. When she gets to court, if she does, this will be thrown out as she will have to prove the above ownership. I don't believe that LLs will also back her up and show that she was, for the sake of of not naming her, but lets say her name was, "I was not smart enough to think twice about deeding land to a group and forgot that I was warned about it as I could lose it to whoever owns the group." She won't get her way and it will be a sorry your hurt case but you don't win.

So you have nothing to worry about.

Oh yes he does, and oh no, she doesn't. "Never the owner of said land" is an argument that will not fly. She did own something of value (she paid for it, and can prove it). Now he owns it. Was the transaction legal? That's the question the court will have to decide. Did she expect to receive value in return for the land? Did she actually receive said value? I have no opinion on that. But the argument that "she didn't own it in the first place" is just silly.