It started out as a simple collection matter.  A customer had committed to purchase something by way of contract.  They failed to pay.  The company contacted them several times.  When the customer still didn’t pay they sued.  The customer still didn’t respond and the court issued a default judgment.  It’s the kind of thing that happens every day in business.  Only this time it turned into a small public relations nightmare when a Washington Post reporter picked up the story and wrote about it.

The collection matter that caught the reporter’s eye: the Washington Redskins had sued Pat Hill, a 72 year old life long Washington, D.C. resident, a grandmother, and a real estate agent who was a multi-year season ticket holder that defaulted on her promise to buy season tickets because the housing bubble burst and she was broke.

The good news is that after the media flap the Redskins requested that the court vacated the $66,364 judgment.  Note: defaults can accelerate the payments due and trigger interest, attorney’s fees, and court costs.  She had a 10 year contract through 2017 for two prime time seats at FedEx Field and the Redskins were able to recoup the full value of the unpaid contract.  The vacated judgment meant she didn’t have to pay. 

The other good news is that we all have an opportunity to learn some legal literacy lessons from the fumbles on this play.  Here’s what this zebra has to say about it.

Never ignore a lawsuit.  We’ve seen it before and we’ll probably see it again.  Ms Hill says she couldn’t afford a lawyer and therefore never responded to the lawsuit.  That’s a huge legal literacy mistake. 

If you ignore a lawsuit it does not go away.  It will bite you in the end zone.   That’s because once a suit is filed the judicial machinery is engaged.  The wheels start turning and the case takes on a life of its own.  There are deadlines.  If deadlines come and go and no one, not even you, is there to tell your side of the story, your side doesn’t get heard.  It’s that simple.  The only thing the court hears is the other side and that means they automatically win.  It’s called a default judgment.  You lose.  Case closed. 

Even if she couldn’t afford a lawyer, Ms Hill had some options.  She could have contacted legal aide.  She could have looked for a lawyer (perhaps another diehard Redskins fan) who would have taken the case on a pro bono (free) basis.  Or she could simply have shown up in court herself to explain the situation.

Unfortunately, Ms Hill isn’t the first person to ignore a suit and wind up with a judgment against her.  We recently saw, for example, how ignoring a case resulted in a $4.1 billion award.

You can’t score points if you sit on the sidelines.  So unless you can afford to loose, suit up when a suit is filed.  Show your face in court, get someone to do it for you, or at a minimum call the lawyer who filed the suit.  Their name and phone number is right there on the court papers.  Ask what they really want and try to resolve the case before a deadline comes and goes.

Ms Hill admits she ignored the lawsuit.  That single mistake caused a lot of aggravation.

The legal literacy score at the end of the first half: Redskins 7, Hill 0.

Come back tomorrow for part 2 when I discuss smoke signals and other mixed messages.

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