MUST READ book: Liberty for None and Injustice for All - ID theft victim legal struggle
This is not the detailed review I had planned to write about Gerald Eller’s ID theft and legal nightmares, but I’m just too busy.
Jerry Eller could have been a collector.
He worked in sales (cold calls for MCI) and spent his life not having to worry about finances until he started getting collection calls and letters in the late 90s. His credit reports were mixed up with “Jerry Willard”, a guy who somehow got his SSN and started opening accounts and then didn’t pay. After a lot of stress and frustration, he thought he resolved the problems.
Of course, it wasn’t so.
Jerry is as honest as anyone could be.
He describes in detail how he had one problem after another. Problems finding a new job after the World.com collapse and nobody telling him that they declined to hire him because they reviewed his credit report.
No corporation wants to give the REAL reason because it likely means that they may be drawn into litigation, having records subpoenaed and employees deposed. Nobody needs that crap. So Jerry is lacking DOCUMENTATION of his damages.
The job he got SUCKED.
To make matters worse, he hired attorney Robert Mason to restore his perfect credit rating.
Mason should have been disbarred. He didn’t even conduct discovery!
Jerry describes the court hearings, the Trans Union attorneys and he even mentions Amanda Lewis (Stamps), the attorney who handled my very first lawsuit against TU in small claims.
Jerry doesn’t hold back. He names NAMES!
At the settlement hearing with judge Shaffer, TU offered $15,000.
My thought was that Shoop would come out with guns a blazing telling the judge about my difficulties in obtaining employment and trying to get loans of credit on multiple occasions. It was a given he would eloquently express to the court how damaging all this mess was to my financial situation and future.
It was exciting me to think he would site the Fair Credit Reporting Act and talk about my actual damages of liquidating my assets and the destruction of my reputation and character. I thought for sure Shoop would indicate that punitive damages alone would exceed $15,000!
Shoop’s first words out of his mouth were, “Your honor, I just came on to this case within the recent weeks, and would like to refer it over to attorney Robert Mason.”
Okay, that sounded like a fairly reasonable response. He didn’t know as much as Mason knew at this point. I sure didn’t want him screwing this thing up and saying we accept TransUnion’s offer!
We all look over at Mason eagerly awaiting his response and Mason turns to look at me and says, “Your honor, I will just have Mr. Eller explain his situation.”
What? It was surreal.
Over three years of this garbage, lost evidence, denied employment, denied credit, telling strangers about Jerry Willard so I can get a student loan, mental anguish, obstruction of justice by TransUnion, two different attorneys in a matter of weeks, and being assigned a criminal alias and I am now representing myself?
On several pages Jerry describes his thoughts and finally decides on his counter offer:
It wasn’t near enough money but I quickly responded to Shaffer’s question of what did I want, and said, “I will be willing to settle for $250,000.”
The response from not only TransUnion but also my own two attorneys and the judge was unbelievable! You would have thought I demanded everyone’s firstborn child or something.
TransUnion immediately stood up and stated that they couldn’t agree to such an unacceptable demand.
Mason and Shoop looked at each other like they didn’t write enough letters or make enough phone calls to justify half that amount in legal fees or costs. Shaffer wrongfully and irresponsibly said that my case couldn’t warrant or justify such a request.
Jerry moved on to try to find attorneys, he represented himself, he complained with the Bar, tried for a criminal investigation (which SHOULD have been conducted!) and he became a complete basket case because he could not understand (and still doesn’t) why things suck as they do and why nobody gave a rat’s ass about his problems.
Not being able to get a decent job (he tried insurance companies, but they all check the credit), he went back to school mainly because you don’t need perfect credit for a student loan and Jerry was BROKE.
On 9/11 Jerry decided to go back in the army.
He couldn’t get his security clearance because of his credit report. But again NOBODY would actually give him in writing that his credit was the problem. They even LIED to him, stated that he got his clearance after an extended boot camp stay and then shipped him to Hawaii. Jerry hated his time with the 125th Signal Battalion, his life was miserable.
The second half of the book is mostly about his time in the army, dealing with his clearance, discrimination, an injury, getting married and divorced again, still searching for a lawyer and dealing with the credit issues, finally being discharged and getting screwed by the army on his disability rating. Unfortunately, there’s very little about his lawsuit against Experian and the outcome.
Jerry is a chauvinist and a racist.
Jerry is the kind of guy who would post here that all you need to do is pay your bills on time and you’ll never have a credit problem—until it happened to HIM.
Jerry is a moron in many respects, but he still is a human being and the FCRA does NOT apply only to people who are not morons.
Jerry didn’t deserve to have his life destroyed by the credit bureaus.
And the book is so full of spelling and grammatical errors, at times Jerry really doesn’t make sense. And that’s too bad. I don’t know yet what it costs to have Amazon’s self-publishing subsidiary BookSurge to update. They only print on demand, what’s the big deal? I just sent them an email and asked.
Jerry still didn’t have the slightest clue about the law and procedures when he wrote the book.
MANY of his statements are totally wrong.
It’s beyond comprehension that he represents himself as an ID theft expert at his website. He is as clueless as it gets. I can’t understand why he didn’t find my websites during his research. It looks like one of his girlfriends found my posts about the $5 million jury verdict against TU.
The reviews at Amazon are quite helpful.
Jerry actually SPAMMED to increase sales. And instead of apologizing, he responded at Amazon:
… E-mailing random e-mails to public e-mail addresses is a 1st Amendment Right that millions have died for, fought for, and are dying and fighting for as I post this. ...
Jerry is an idiot. You will see bizarre statements like this throughout the book.
ESPECIALLY because of these issues, this is a MUST read book not only for all consumers with credit problems, litigants and lawyers, but it also shows why nothing every changes.
The Jerry Ellers on this planet are only concerned with their own problems, are incapable of researching legal issues, incapable of figuring out the extent of the corruption and continually draw wrong conclusions.
But at least Jerry had the guts to tell his story to the WORLD.
The credit problems and litigation ruined his relationship with his family and friends. I very rarely talk about my litigation with family and friends. They don’t understand and they don’t want to hear it. The two questions most asked: How much do you expect to get and WHEN will you get the check? And then there’s the “why are you wasting your time on this when you don’t get paid for your time?” It’s frustrating.
Writing the book was probably Jerry’s therapy and I can relate to that too.
I’d go insane if I couldn’t write about my litigation. It’s a way to find closure.
When an injustice or lying lawyer upsets me, I post about it and then I know that at least I’m not getting railroaded secretly. I don’t believe in telling these types of problems to a psychiatrist, you got to tell the WORLD!
Liberty for None and Injustice for All is definitely a MUST read for anyone involved with credit problems, litigation and people who claim that all you need to do is pay your bills on time and you’ll be fine or that you just need to get a lawyer when you’re wronged.
Posted by Christine on 01/05/2008 at 04:07 PM
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