The Lawyer Appointment Update

Thanks for asking Suna,

Well, we had our appointment with the lawyer today. I'd say it went well. He said, of course, that it would be ridiculous for it to end up going to court. He said that the burden of proof would lie on them and they would need to PROVE that it was our cats who were using the sand box. We are doubtful that they have actual proof (like photographs, or videotape, or DNA testing), so that is all in our favor. But it still leaves the issue of what the hell to do about it all??? Well, he suggested that we either call them or draft a letter with the intention to try to move past everything, especially considering that we do have to at least somewhat coexist with them across the street. If they don't respond to the letter or respond negatively then we will write to their lawyer and point out [this is great...] that they are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act, which was a form included in the initial letter to us - because their letter stated that we needed to pay the $900.00 within 14 days, but the FDCA states that we have 30 days. (Not that we will be paying in anyway). BUT our atty. said that that is in violation of the FDCA and WE would be entitled to a $1000 penalty along with our atty. fees. I don't think that this will come down to that, but it is nice to have in our back pocket.

Another really odd twist to all this is that today I spoke with one of the police officers about getting copies of the police reports and she said that he had come in on Sunday and showed them a letter (from either them or their atty.) that stated that we had worked everything out and everything was fine. It mentioned nothing about suing and she was surprised when I read her the letter we had gotten. I can't figure them out - either they are now realizing what FOOLS they are and are trying to backpedal OR they trying to give the impression to the police that they are trying to work things out. Either way, the only way I found out about that letter was because I 'happened' to be talking with the officer today.

In the meantime, we are considering getting an invisible fence and installing it ourselves.

Although I'm not really hopeful that things are going to be resolved and it is a bit frustrating to not be taking more action than writing a letter to say we want to work out a solution, overall I guess it was good.