Since early February I had severely limited my paid work and I tried to concentrate on working on the complaint. Still, between e-mail and forum postings, it seemed like I barely made any progress. I was very glad when I when creditboards.com opened and I could limit my credit forum to followup postings.
Because the SOL for FDCPA violations is only 1 year, and I wasn't about to let American Agencies get away with their blatant violations, I absolutely had to get done.
I was listening to XM's Bluesville, trying not to get depressed over the legalese I didn't understand and the tremendous amount of documents I was trying to sort through. I had no idea how complex my case is until I tried to put it all on paper.
I was worried that the complaint was too long, but the court clerk even asked around and then assured me that there was no limit on the number of pages. I tried various fonts, and managed to reduce it to 66 pages from over 80 just by changing font.
Then I realized that I couldn't staple the complaint, not even with the brand new heavy duty stapler. I read the Pro Se instructions again and learned that you do NOT staple the complaints filed with the court. The binder clips work well.
For some strange reason I also felt that I had to file before the Iraqi war began.
Around 2 am on 3/19 I finally said "that's it" and I printed 3 sets of the final version and headed for Phoenix. (The complaint in Word format or by defendant/subject)
It was a beautiful drive on 93, I just love driving through the desert. After getting lost a few times in Phoenix, I was at the courthouse around 8 AM. Had to wait till the clerk's office opened at 8:30, and I was so relieved when they put that stamp on my filing. I had taken my notebook along just in case something was wrong, so I could go to a Kinko's to fix it.
It was also quite satisfying to use the Capital One card to pay the $150 filing fee.
Back in my truck, I started looking for my keys and found them in my pants pocket. While I had to go through the metal detector to enter the courthouse, it sure didn't detect those keys.
I stopped at a big mall outside Phoenix to do my monthly shopping, Walmart, Home Depot, food, etc. and it was afternoon when I headed home. There's a place called "Baghdad" 15 miles off 93, I was very tempted to check it out. But common sense kicked in, I was tired, didn't bring my tent and really had tons of work waiting for me.
I was only home for about an hour when the bombing started.
Posted by Christine at March 20, 2003 10:14 PM