Case: Entered into Partnership w/party to buy & sell property, party "A" was to provide a contract, they took our down payment $ & refused to provide a contract, so when we threatened to stop payment if they didn't provide either the contract or the $ back, they said if we did we would have no claim on future profits. We discontinued payments, 10 months later they sold the property & sued us for the difference.

Trial: Judge said case was complicated & he would need "several weeks to decide", I would receive Judgement notification in the mail. 4 weeks pass, no notice of Judgement.
5 weeks later Plaintiffs called & said they had won & they would ruin my credit & my gov't job w/the req'd info I was now Ordered to provide to them. I contacted Clerk & was told they had mailed the Judgement to me 3 days after trial, (I never recv'd, they had no record), they re-mailed and I finally recv'd it, & although I had 5 Fl Statutes defending my position I lost, Judge gave no explanation as to why & Ordered that I provide "Fact Info Sheet" (SSN, bank accnt #'s, employer, etc) (http://www.clerk.leon.fl.us/sections/clerk_services/online_forms/general/fact_info.pdf) directly to Plaintiffs (who said they'll use this info to destroy me, I have no proof).
Now it's 44 days after Judgement, so I can't appeal & I'm in violation of Order to provide this info, Plaintiffs filed "Motion to Compel", & this new trial is in 2 weeks!
I was robbed of my chance to appeal, & now it looks like I'm trying to skip out on my obligation! I've filed a "Motion for Protective Order" to protect me from having to provide this info, but what else can I do to protect my credit & my job? This isn't fair at all! What may happen to me in this reopened trial?

Not enoung info at all on the case, but that issue is you gave money without a written contract, nothing should even happen till the paper work is signed.

But the judge does not have to tell you why they rule, they merely rule.

Can I assume you did not have an attorney?

It may be too late but that is what you need

Not enoung info at all on the case, but that issue is you gave money without a written contract, nothing should even happen till the paper work is signed.
But the judge does not have to tell you why they rule, they merely rule.
Can I assume you did not have an attorney ??
It may be too late but that is what you need

What additional info do you want? This forum has a character limit, so I had to slim this BIG case down for this forum.
To answer you; Plaintiffs said they would provide a written contract after the down payment was submitted, they took our money & then refused, I know now, but I can't cry over spilled milk, what do I do now?
"But the judge does not have to tell you why they rule, they merely rule.", Yes, I realize this, but he said during trial,"This is a very complicated case and I'll need to do a lot of research...", then 3 days later he rules & only includes his order? Don't they have to at least follow procedures, rules, ethics?
I've been to small claims a few times as Plaintiff & as Defendant and EVERY time, even if it was for less than $500, the Judge included some comment as to why he ruled the way he did. This was for much more $$ & much more complicated and nothing?
I have consulted an attny & was told that since this was this Judge's last case as a Civil Judge, he merely wanted to clear his docket, so I got screwed... of course I can't prove this.
Then to add insult to injury, after calling weekly after the trial & being told each time not to worry, I would receive the Judgement in the mail, I received it 44 days later, much too late to appeal and also now outside of the Court's req'd time frame to full fill the order! What can I do?
My Attny wasn't interested in taking this case since it's less than $6K. Got to love America...
I feel this Judge was a disgrace & the one I'm going to be in front of isn't much better (from what I've heard & seen).

Okay, I'm basically trying to get the Court to tell me why they ruled how they did, since my Judgment included nothing but an Order.
Furthermore, this is to be presented as a Motion during the reopening of the case after a Motion to Compel has been filed by the Plaintiffs, this is not during an appeal.
So here's what the Florida Law Library says;
• Motion for Clarification: “„Motions for interpretation or clarification, although not specifically described in the rules of practice, are commonly considered by trial courts and are procedurally proper. State v. Denya, 107 Conn. App. 800, 810 (2008).
•
When Appropriate: “„A motion for clarification may be appropriate where there is an ambiguous term in a judgment . . . but, where the movant‟s request would cause a substantive modification of an existing judgment, a motion to open or to set aside the judgment would normally be necessary.‟” Ibid.
• Contrasted with Motion for Articulation: “The petitioner's appeal form also states that the he appeals from the denial of his motion for clarification. A motion seeking an articulation or further articulation of a trial court's decision is called a motion for articulation. See Practice Book § 66-5. "The sole remedy of any party desiring the court having appellate jurisdiction to review the trial court's decision on the motion filed pursuant to this section . . . shall be by motion for review under Section 66-7." Practice Book § 66-5. We therefore decline to review this claim.” Woolcock v. Commr. Of Correction, 62 Conn. App. 821, 824 (2001).

What type of case is this? Are you the plaintiff or the defendant? Who is involved in the case? What did the order state?

I think the mistake you made here was doing this in Small Claims court. Small Claims court judges are generally NOT judges but lawyers who hear cases. Small Claims courts tend to be less formal and get fairly simple cases.

I'm just not sure what you can do at this point. You should not need to give the platinff any info if you pay the judgement. All the info requested was to help them collect. So, if you hand them a check that satisfies the judgement and closes the case. If they use any information obtained on you to do anything other than collect the judgement, you may have a case against them.

What type of case is this? Are you the plaintiff or the defendant? Who is involved in the case? What did the order state?

This is a "Civil, Small Claims" case, I am the Defendant, the Plaintiff and I are involved in this case, please refer to the 1st post in this thread, the order stated that I must pay them the full amount, plus court costs, plus 8% interest, and (the part I really have a problem with), I must complete and hand them a "Florida Fact Information Sheet" (http://www.formsworkflow.com/d42972.aspx)

This is a "Civil, Small Claims" case, I am the Defendant, the Plaintiff and I are involved in this case, please refer to the 1st post in this thread, the order stated that I must pay them the full amount, plus court costs, plus 8% interest, and (the part I really have a problem with), I must complete and hand them a "Florida Fact Information Sheet" (http://www.formsworkflow.com/d42972.aspx)

Yes, I realized after I had asked all of my questions that you started a new thread rather than continue to post in your original one. That's what led to my confusion originally, so I asked that your threads be merged so that others don't get confused by you as I was.

Apparently, you didn't read what Scott wrote. The "Fact Information Sheet" is only required to be completed so that the plaintiff can collect on the judgment. If you pay the judgment, you don't have to complete the sheet - simple as that.

Yes, I realized after I had asked all of my questions that you started a new thread rather than continue to post in your original one. That's what led to my confusion originally, so I asked that your threads be merged so that others don't get confused by you as I was.

Apparently, you didn't read what Scott wrote. The "Fact Information Sheet" is only required to be completed so that the plaintiff can collect on the judgment. If you pay the judgment, you don't have to complete the sheet - simple as that.

No I read it, but I want to make payments and the Plaintiff wants all the money now (surprised?), so they want this information under the auspices that they will use it to either put a lien against my house, or get the Sheriff to seize my property, and if they happen to allow something to happen to my Social Security number, or use my employer information to perhaps spread lies about me or call up and pretend to be a pissed off customer so I lose my job, or perhaps they will sell my bank account numbers, or who knows... right?
I don't know what is so unclear about this, my problem is that I'm required to give extremely sensitive information to people who have alluded that they will use it to financially hurt me!
I would have less of a problem giving this info to an attorney or even to the courts, I would then have at least a shred of confidence that there would be some ethics adhered to, but no, instead the Almighty Courts in Florida have decided there's no issue with giving a hostile Plaintiff all the keys to your identity. But (& this is what it seems like everyone is missing here), it sounds like I either have to come up with a huge amount of money which I don't have or potentially have my credit, my name, and my job compromised. That's patently unfair, why can'T I just sign something that says I'll pay or go to joil or something, why must I give this info to the Plaintiffs?

No I read it, but I want to make payments and the Plaintiff wants all the money now (surprised?), so they want this information under the auspices that they will use it to either put a lien against my house, or get the Sheriff to seize my property, and if they happen to allow something to happen to my Social Security number, or use my employer information to perhaps spread lies about me or call up and pretend to be a pissed off customer so I lose my job, or perhaps they will sell my bank account numbers, or who knows...right?
I don't know what is so unclear about this, my problem is that I'm required to give extremely sensitive information to people who have alluded that they will use it to financially hurt me!
I would have less of a problem giving this info to an attorney or even to the courts, I would then have at least a shred of confidence that there would be some ethics adhered to, but no, instead the Almighty Courts in Florida have decided there's no issue with giving a hostile Plaintiff all the keys to your identity. But (& this is what it seems like everyone is missing here), it sounds like I either have to come up with a huge amount of money which I don't have or potentially have my credit, my name, and my job compromised. Thats patently unfair, why can'T I just sign something that says I'll pay or go to joil or something, why must I give this info to the Plaintiffs?

So don't provide them with your full SSN. Use asterisks and only include the last 4 numbers. Do the same with your bank account number(s). Providing them with your employer information allows them to garnish your wages. Odds are they'll file for garnishment and leave it at that.

The sheriff is not going to seize your property. If they place a lien against your house, it gets removed once payment has been made in full.

If they do anything illegally(harrass you at your place of employment, sell your bank account number, etc.), they'll be in more trouble than it's worth.

But don't just ignore it. Doing that can land you back in court for contempt.

Also, as long as you're making reasonable payments the court will probably not have a problem with it. But make sure it's a good payment. I sued a former tenant once - she mailed me $75 in 6 months... not going to fly.

So don't provide them with your full SSN. Use asterisks and only include the last 4 numbers. Do the same with your bank account number(s). Providing them with your employer information allows them to garnish your wages. Odds are they'll file for garnishment and leave it at that.

The sheriff is not going to seize your property. If they place a lien against your house, it gets removed once payment has been made in full.

If they do anything illegally(harrass you at your place of employment, sell your bank account number, etc.), they'll be in more trouble than it's worth.

But don't just ignore it. Doing that can land you back in court for contempt.

Also, as long as you're making reasonable payments the court will probably not have a problem with it. But make sure it's a good payment. I sued a former tenant once - she mailed me $75 in 6 months.....not gonna fly.

Thanks for all your advice on this, I'm just still so torqued that this has happened at all, these a-holes robbed me of over $20K, then when they wouldn't give me anything to show that we had a Partnership or even that I had any claim to the property, I told them they weren't getting another dime, they said fine, "Your out!", they then tried to do the same thing to numerous other people, but I had warned everyone that unless they gave them something in writing to not do it, so no one did & they ended up having to short sell the property.
I chalked it up to an expensive "Life Lesson", then 10 months later to get sued by them for "Breach of Oral Contract", & although I had 5 Statutes to back up my defense and everyone (attorneys included) said I had nothing to worry about, I lose because of a bad Judge who just wanted to clear his docket, then I get the Judgment too late so I can't even appeal.. and now I might potentially lose even more?
What gives?
It's more than just the money, it really in the principle now, I did absolutely nothing wrong, I lost money, I lost time. They were the scoundrels, but now they win. You're damn right I want to make them wait to get their money, but I don't want to be in contempt of court or have my wages garnished either.

Without knowing what they sued on. It really hard to tell you anhything. You MIGHT be able to countersue or not. But I would strongly advise you to pay the judgement, then try to get your money back.

Without knowing what they sued on. it really hard to tell you anhything. You MIGHT be able to countersue or not. But I would strongly advise you to pay the judgement, then try to get your money back.

Case: Entered into Partnership w/party to buy & sell property, party "A" was to provide a contract, they took our down payment $ & refused to provide a contract, so when we threatened to stop payment if they didn't provide either the contract or the $ back, they said if we did we would have no claim on future profits. We discontinued payments, 10 months later they sold the property & sued us for the difference.

Trial: Judge said case was complicated & he would need "several weeks to decide", I would receive Judgement notification in the mail. 4 weeks pass, no notice of Judgement.
5 weeks later Plaintiffs called & said they had won & they would ruin my credit & my gov't job w/the req'd info I was now Ordered to provide to them. I contacted Clerk & was told they had mailed the Judgement to me 3 days after trial, (I never recv'd, they had no record), they re-mailed and I finally recv'd it, & although I had 5 Fl Statutes defending my position I lost, Judge gave no explanation as to why & Ordered that I provide "Fact Info Sheet" (SSN, bank accnt #'s, employer, etc) directly to Plaintiffs (who said they'll use this info to destroy me, I have no proof).
Now it's 44 days after Judgement, so I can't appeal & I'm in violation of Order to provide this info, Plaintiffs filed "Motion to Compel", & this new trial is in 2 weeks!
I was robbed of my chance to appeal, & now it looks like I'm trying to skip out on my obligation! I've filed a "Motion for Protective Order" to protect me from having to provide this info, but what else can I do to protect my credit & my job? This isn't fair at all! What may happen to me in this reopened trial?