On May 2nd 2013 I had a pretrial conference for taking Grow Financial Federal credit union to small claims court. They hired a legal team and the first thing they told the judge was that my suit was not valid because I had listed the wrong “name” of who I was suing. I listed as the defendant; Grow Financial Federal Credit Union LLC as per state records show, and the lawyer said there shouldn’t have been an “LLC” on the name of the defendant. They also mentioned that because the main office of the bank was located in Tampa Florida, that the case should be moved out of the city where the transaction took place and into Tampa instead of Saint Petersburg causing even greater inconvenience to me. It was clear from the beginning that this was an attempt to harass me and make it more expensive and difficult for me to sue them.
The judge recommended meeting with a mediator. It was during this meeting that the lawyer representing Grow Financial Federal credit union told me that the credit union told him to “offer me $100.00 to go away” but that HE said that wouldn’t be enough. He said they then offered me $500.00 which would have left me with only $300.00 after the court fees I had to pay to take this to court. The attorney also told me that they intended to go after me for legal fees if I didn’t settle! I had no idea they could even do this since it was just small claims court. I asked if I could have some time to think about it, but was told the offer was just for that day and I had to make an immediate decision. I balked and we went back before the judge to reschedule the next hearing.
Seeing that this was going to continue costing me more and more money and lots of my time, I decided to dismiss the case. I sent the credit union and courthouse notice that the case was being dismissed based on my logic. As my letter sent to Robert Fisher shows, I will forfeit the $300.00 I had to gain and have this case continue to be public information and show what great lengths this credit union went through to prevent them from having to reimburse me for the money that they stole from me.