The Legal Farce

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I first contacted Community Law, but they refused to help. They claimed it would be a conflict of interest to do so. That is lawyer speak to say that they are already assisting the other party.

Volunteer Network

Community Law utilizes over 1,200 volunteer lawyers from the private sector who work inside the Community Law structure to provide free advice.

Alternative to Private Law

Their purpose is to provide free legal services to people who cannot afford a private lawyer.

IOW they are being funded to use volunteer lawyers, but not a single one of those is able to help me because the con artist got to them previously.

I contacted two independent law firms. They invited me to come discuss it with them. It's a 100km drive from where I live and both times took up most of my day, only to be told it would cost me far more in legal fees than the $50,000 that the debt was worth. Thus, I engaged them not.

Land registration, district council and the police just shrug and dismiss it as "civil case". OTOH it's far from a trivial amount to me and I really can't afford to just walk away from most of my life savings, so I filed a case myself as best I could (more about that elsewhere). Meanwhile the lawyers were demanding that I pay them pronto for that relaytively useless bit of advice.

Note: I didn't refuse to pay, but I did tell them they could wait just like I have to, until the court rules whether I get my money back or not.

Steven Orchard Lawyers

For anyone looking for legal advice, it might pay to keep in mind that, Steven Orchard Lawyers Limited effectively scoffed at me saying they would cost me more than twice what the debt was worth in the first place. They weren't actually any use to me at all.

While to me that $50,000 is not a trivial sum. I am seeking to recover additional costs such as theirs from the respondent, so I told them they should wait for the court decision just like I have to.

Debt Collectors

For a start these "debt recovery specialists" are using fixed format layout in their e-mail, so I really couldn't read it on my cellphone. Getting back to my desktop, my screen still isn't wide enough and printing it gets truncated as shown.

Most relevant is their malicious threats of harming my credit rating, loading my details with credit reporting agencies and sending a "field agent" to visit me.

IMHO this is making an utter mockery of legal procedures. The lawyer's debt collectors seem to think I ought to be the one file for a disputes hearing, but I think they can do that. As far as I'm concerned this shambles is consequent to Richard Lowe's shenanigans so he should be the one paying for it and there is already a hearing scheduled for that, so I asked the court to include their claim there.

None of this shit is my doing and I just want my money back.