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Comment by louthy | Hacker News Reader

You don’t specify where you are but if you’re in the UK, use the free small claims process [1]. No lawyers, no expenses, pre-trail hearing with a judge (over the phone), and then a trial if the judge decides it has legal legs.

I’ve used it before and it’s very effective. They will send a letter to Facebook on your behalf (with all the court’s crown logos on the letterhead, etc), they must respond or end up in court.

[1] https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

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Small Claims is effective, but if you win - and you probably will - there's no guarantee that a company the size of Facebook will care. This has been a common problem for people suing airlines which ignore legal obligations to pay out under compensation law.

So you'll have to go to court again for an enforcement order.

If you get one of those you can send bailiffs in to take stuff and sell it on your behalf. But it's starting to get expensive at this point.

Although it will probably get FB's attention, especially if someone from the press just happens to be there to take photos when the bailiffs go in.

> But it's starting to get expensive at this point

I don't believe this is the case in the UK. By this point the costs are being run up against the defendant and they have to pay the bailiff fees:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/action-your...

Correct - if you're enforcing a judgment in the UK, the cost of doing so gets paid by the defendant. The bailiffs will handle this themselves by seizing enough to cover the judgment amounts and their own costs.

Once you have an order to enforce the judgement your bailiffs can walk into the Facebook's London office and start removing property and nobody will be able to stop them.

I thought this was the case. An unhappy customer of Wizz Air did this recently which is why this was in the back of my mind:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-gets-4500-wiz...

My favourite part of this article:

"He then applied for bailiffs who attended the Wizz Air desk at Luton Airport - saying they could take goods including chairs, tables, computers or an even aircraft."

> even aircraft

Brilliant, I'd love to see that enacted!

It's worth going in, if you're going in out of spite:

> On June 3, Nyerges, two sheriff's deputies and a moving truck showed up at the local BofA branch. The deputies informed the manager that he could either pay the Nyerges' legal fees— $2,500—or the movers would start taking away the bank's furniture and cash. The manager, after conferring with his superiors, gave the deputies a check.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/bank-america-florida-foreclo...

> The following browsers have been confirmed as being fully compatible with MCOL; • Internet Explorer version 6, 7 8 and 9 • Firefox version 3 • Opera version 9 • Safari version 5 • Chrome version 9

wow, www.moneyclaim.gov.uk looks very useful

do you have any idea if you need to be (even for an hour) physically there? that would change a lot in terms of traveling costs

I didn't get to the trial stage the two times I've used it, so I am not sure, but I would assume so. The first time the letter from HM Courts was enough to put the shits up the defendant (which is I think the biggest value of this for small claims against 'small' parties); the second time I got to the pre-trial phone-call with the judge, he said "Yep, there's enough here to go to trial", and then the defendant backed down.

I'd be very surprised if many of these go to the final trial phase. It's nearly never worth the effort of doing so for the defendant, just pay up and not risk having a county court judgement around your neck.

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