theres no "guilt" or "innocence" in the civil court. And paying the initial £500-600 will be a full and final settlement meaning thats the end of it and they can't come after you for anymore...
...until the next accusation of downloading another piece of software. Really, they can go on for as long as they want. And as long as a few people pay up, that's enough intermittent reinforcement of their behaviour to encourage them to continue.
...until they get slapped down by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority which is investigating DL's actions following an article by Which? magazine.
But they'd still need proof you committed the felony. Even if they had that, in a court, you could ask exactly how they got your IP and all your details. They don't want that, that's why none of the cases that there was a slim chance they could lose went to court.
I'm presuming that because you used the word felony that you are from the states. I'm not sure how it works over there but in the UK thecivil court makes its decision by the weight of the evidence i.e.l if the judge thinks your guilty you're basically screwed. This has two drawbacks 1. the judges are very rerely technically minded so the moment you start talking about IP'S and M.A.C addresses their brains shut down. 2. trying to prove that you didn't download something is basically trying to prove a negative after all I'll give you an example prove that at this moment that your not dressed in a frogs suit eating a biscuiit which you dunked in a pint of lager. thats stupid I know but the thing I'm trying to get across is that its impossible to prove a negative so its always going to just be your word against theirs.
I am doing some research for a friend and came across this forum. One of my friends was taken to court a 3 weeks ago and lost. He hired a lawyer who were quite confident they were going to win and tried to get Davenport Lyons to drop the case by making offers outside of court. The offers were like you pay everything to date and drop the case and our client will be happy, but Davenport Lyons rejected all of this. At the hearing the judge ruled against my friend and his expected costs are expected to be in the region of £8000. Now the solicitors say they can't do anything about it and say they can not help. Has anyone else experienced this?
If your friend's solicitors tried to settle out of court can I assume that he was, well, a little bit guilty?
He told me he was not guilty and I believe him. It was his old house mate who did it but he got the letter as he was the bill payer. As I understand it the solicitors were offering to settle out of court to get Davenport Lyons to pay them costs to date because they were very confident about my friends case.
How is it?? (although you're right about the first bit ) They take you for a mug and milk you for every penny. They wont sign any document saying it's the last of it.
The whole point of a pre-court settlement is that it is final and binding. If they weren't final then no one would bother doing them.
A pre-court settlement is final but only in relation to THAT court case theres nothing stopping them trying again claiming that you have dl'ed a different file on a different ocassion.
What Ryu_ookami said. By paying, you're admitting to being guilty. It's not a pre-court settlement, it's a bribe. When I first saw thee letter I actually question the legitimacy of it for a while, it was that bad....
I honestly don't know. It's been thrown out of other countries too. I received my letter only yesterday for an offence I supposedly committed 10 months ago. Milking the cow.
O RLY? Basically, it boils down to this, if you did it, pay the £500 and dont whinge for getting busted. If you didn't, don't pay and go find some proper legal advice.
Either way, how do they know these letters have even turned up in the correct place? There is no signature required, there is no proof of postage ???
Theres no legal requirement for them to make sure that you got the letter, even the letter sent from the clerk of the court stating the time and date of the hearing will be sent via the normal post. In the event that you do not get the letter and miss the court date as fair as i'm aware you would have the right to appeal the decision though I do believe that there is a cut off date beyond which you wouldn't be allowed to appeal.
I think there is a big difference between UK and US civil law. In the US, plaintiffs can send you a demand letter ahead of filing a lawsuit, it's their choice. Once the lawsuit is filed, a defendant must be officially "served" with notice of the suit, which is generally in person or possibly in some jurisdictions by certified signature return receipt mail. There is no "felony" in a civil suit. I rather doubt DL is billing their clients on an hourly basis. It could be a set amount per case filed and a percentage on recovery. But, this is just a guess. By the way, I am not an attorney. I did work as a legal secretary and assistant for over 20 years. That means I know enough to get myself in trouble and don't rely on what I've said.
Hi, peeps. Just in case this hasn't been mentioned here before - there is a petition currently running on the number 10 website to try and get the Information Commissioners office to interpret the DPA more in line with other European countries, i.e that peoples names should not have been given out in connection with a civil, rather than a criminal case. You can find it here. Spread the word, and sign it even if you're not a person being targeted by Davenport Lyons. If we stop them being able to get names we can quite effectively destroy this particular business model.
