A few weeks ago I received a certified letter from Shafritz and Braten, PA, which contained a complaint that they had served against me for small claims court, showing that they had been unable to serve the complaint, and therefore served it on the Attorney General of the State of Florida, by claiming that they had information to the effect that I was deliberately concealing my whereabouts in order to avoid service of the complaint.
I live alone, and was working at the time. Turns out that the only information that they had to suggest anything about me was that the Sheriff's deputies had twice stated that my home appeared abandoned. This is apparently because I had a motorcycle accident in and was unable to keep up the property properly for a couple of years after that, and when I finally decided to get the lawn mower out, it would not start, and I could not afford to replace it. The front steps are overgrown with blackberries and grass. HOWEVER, the electricity has been on continuously during the period in which they tried to serve me, there were potted plants which would not survive without daily water, and the driveway is clear where the tire tracks are, not overgrown, and they failed to check with the neighbors, and there is a pet food dish with fresh food in it every day, and 40 or so blueberry plants with drip irrigation that runs twice a day, and they may even have heard the heat pump come on. The deputies were thus negligent in stating that the property appeared to be abandoned.
Still, their negligence does not begin to state why they were unable to serve the complaint, and in no way suggests that I was deliberately concealing my whereabouts to avoid service of this complaint.
I intend to file a lawsuit against both LWT, Inc and Shafritz and Braten, PA, for lilbel, and/or slander, and/or mailicious prosecution. So I checked with the Florida corporate registry, and discovered that the ONLY listed shareholder, director and officer of LWT, Inc is one Hugh Shafritz, presumably one and the same as the lead attorney in Shafritz and Braten, PA. This creates a conflict of interest, and so I will also be filing complaints with the Florida Bar Association, and with the Attorney General of the State of Florida. The basis for the latter is that they fraudulently obtained service of the complaint against me on behalf of their client, LWT, Inc.
If anyone else has any problems at all with these people, I would suggest at minimum filing a complaint with the Florida Bar, and filing all appropriate legal action against the plaintiff, LWT, Inc and the attorneys, Shafritz and Braten, PA. Ask the Judge in the case to not allow Shafritz and Braten, PA to represent LWT, Inc, as there is an inherent conflict of interest there.
You can represent yourself in small claims court, and anything that would be an appropriate counter-claim can be used to offset any judgment they may be able to obtain. If they have libeled you, for instance, that would be an appropriate counterclaim.
In addition, threaten to file bankruptcy if that is at all appropriate.in my case, I have no income other than Social Security, and my mortgage payment eats up virtually all of that, bankruptcy is the only way to save my homestead from them. Since they are continuing to throw good money after bad, knowing that I will do whatever it takes to protect my homestead, I believe that they are guilty as well, of malicious prosecution.
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