How do I file a lawsuit against a company in the US? And given that I don't have money for a lawyer...

How do I file a lawsuit against a company in the US? And given that I don't have money for a lawyer, would it be reasonable to find a lawyer who could agree to not charge me anything unless we win the case, and take a portion of the settlement if we win?

Specifically, Amazon stole money from me. I ordered two of something, they charged me for two, I only received one. I contacted customer service, and they sent me the replacement at no charge. I thought everything was fine. But then I was notifified that if I did not return one of these items, I would be charged (yet I had already been charged, and I did not request to return anything). I contacted customer support again, and they said it was a mistake on their end and that they would resolve it, and I was told that I would not be charged.
Yet now, they charged me. I paid for two items and received two, yet now they (without my authorization) withdrew a bit over $50 from my credit union account. To my understanding, that is criminal theft.
I obviously have bank account logs, but I do not have chat logs from talking to Amazon customer support. Should I contact Amazon again and request chat logs? Will I need chat logs?

I have never filed a lawsuit before, I don't even know where to begin. What do?

>this user wants to sue amazon

Amazon withdrew money from my credit union account without my authorization, so yes, user. I do.

$50!!! OMGG!!!

The paperwork they throw at you will NOT be worth $50 come back with they withdraw $500 million.
Contact your bank idiot.

>I obviously have bank account logs, but I do not have chat logs from talking to Amazon customer support.
mistake, but you'll be fine. There are a lot of consumer protections. A lawsuit over $50 does not make economic sense, do not peruse it.

Call your bank and request a clawback on the charge. Contact Amazon support and tell them they fucked up.

then that's an issue with your bank that allowed the company to withdraw from your account without your permission.

>wants to sue Amazon over 50$
just contact them again, idiot

I want my money back as well as a settlement to make up for the fact that they stole money from me.

Contact support again, they don't care about your 2 dollar items. Shit happens specially when you're a huge company delivering shit to 99999999 different rashids all over the world.

See I don't think my credit union did anything wrong, because I don't see how they'd differentiate between whether I authorized Amazon to take the money (as in, when I make a purchase) or did not authorize Amazon to take the money (as in, in this situation).

I contacted them twice already, considering they still took money from my credit union account without my authorization, I expect more than just the ~$50 back in compensation.

lmao just tell them you want a $20 gift card as well.

>a poorfag wants to sue amazon
Literally logged in to say this. /thread

lel

>logged in
Yes I want to sue Amazon and yes I am poor, but I believe some lawyers will only make me pay if we win the case.

>itt
how can sue multi billion dollar company over failure of third party to fill order properly

plz kill self

It wasn't a failure of a third party to fulfill the order. That was all resolved. The issue is that Amazon withdrew money from my credit union account without my authorization.

most lawyers won't take the case cause they know it's not worth the effort to fight against a team of lawyers over a 50$ case. they'll laugh at you and tell you to go home

Lawsuits involve punative damages as well to my understanding, so it wouldn't be only the ~$50, but it would be compensation for the fact that Amazon illegally withdrew money from my credit union account. What if some random guy used my debit card number to withdraw money from my account? He'd probably end up in prison and paying a huge settlement to me. Amazon did just this, so they should have to pay a large settlement as well.

>Lawsuits involve punative damages as well
Dude you don't even know what punitive damages are, or how rare they are. Just tell them to give you a damn gift card; suing them is not even close to being worth it.

Yeah I don't really understand what punitive damages are or how lawsuits work. But since they stole money from my bank account, which I believe is criminal, I think they should owe me more than $50 and a gift card.

In the TOS you probably agreed that they could withdraw money from your account without authorization anyway. But whatever, google "lawyers near me" and tell them what's up, if you're serious. As others have said, they'll probably laugh at you.

I probably agreed that they can withdraw money for legitimate purposes, but they withdrew money for an illegitimate purpose. Okay thanks

is this nigger seriously going to sue amazon over 50 fucking dollars holy shit my sides.

>this entire thread

america where they resort to sueing people/large corporations when they don't have money to pay rent.

I am going to sue them over theft

holy shit this thread

Op tried to scam Amazon and got rekt. Usually the scam goes that these people aka skids say they want to return an item. The scam part is they fill the box with cool ice or some shit so it melts by the time it gets back. Then they claim it was ups's fault or some shit. Op is just a mega autist and think he's going to sue Amazon over his failed scam

No, I never requested to return anything, and I never sent anything to Amazon.

...

So youre going to take Amazon to small claims court over $50 and expect to find a lawyer to take the case for free based on a commission...(reminder $50 lawsuit)

Whats the lawyer get? $20-$30?

Are you sure you aren't an autistic who thinks a credit to your bank account is actually a charge? You understand plus and minus right?

I'm a law school student, user. I technically can practice law with regard to your problem because I assume you are poor (since we shouldn't deny poor people of the arm of the law). But you have to give me BTC first. Maybe 5 .0001 is fine.

>I will help biz but first send BTC

8/10 bait

Fine, asshole. Give me a brief description of the problem. What did you get? Do you have a receipt?

Are you, poor enough not to afford any lawyer? Did Amazon sell it to you or another person?

Yes, I understand plus and minus. I had $221.37 in my account and I now only have $169.07 due to Amazon taking my money.
I am OP, not the user you replied to. I ordered two weightlifting plates, and they only sent me one despite charging me for two. I contacted customer support, they acknowledged the mistake and sent me a free replacement. But then a bit later I received a notice from Amazon that I was supposed to send one back or they would charge me. I contacted customer support, they said that I would not be charged. But now I was charged.
Ultimately, I paid the initial payment for two plates, then received one plate, then received a second plate. At this point everything is right, I paid for two plates, I received two plates. But then a while later (like a few weeks) I was charged again, this time for a plate and shipping. This was all done through Amazon, not a third party seller.

this guy has probably never been to court. i would literally pay $50 or more just to avoid going through the hassle and bullshit.

OP you have no idea what your talking about, and zero understanding of damages. You would need to prove how losing that $50 caused you further financial problems that they are now liable for.

you have literally 0 chance of suing a corporation by yourself. you can threaten to contact the better business bureau, or just contact it but I'm 100% sure you can fix this with customer support.

Amazon committed theft, I want more than my ~$50 back.

>I expect more than just the ~$50 back in compensation.

You are delusional, you'd have to prove damages to get any amount of extra compensation in a settlement. You will get so much more by just contacting support and hoping to get $10 credit with your refund and I doubt you'll get that much.

Okay, that's all I need to know. Not even gonna ask what state you live in, even though it's needed.
Why?
Suing isn't worth it.
If you want to sue, it's though small claims court. At certain states, you don't need to pay a lawyer for that.
I did check if you can get a LOT more as damages and indemnity.
But, well, you won't. In fact you'll lose more, since filing fees would be about 40 bucks. But, when summoned the hearing is usually summary, so you get judgement in the same day of your court hearing.

I'm NOT an American by the way. But our country essentially copied your rules regarding the small claims court.

Amazon committed a crime, did they not? And if someone commits a crime they can be sued?

...

Thank you for the input. How would I go about sueing them not just for the $50 but for compensation for the fact that they committed a crime (theft)?

That was also posted by me, as I want input from both boards.

no they didn't. Read the terms and agreements you agree to. it isn't "theft". and its fucking $50. Cry to customer service, not a lawyer or Veeky Forums.

Terms and agreements do not say they can take $50+ for no reason. How is that not theft?

Depends on the terms. You sign one before the transaction. And the presence of criminal intent.

Can't say so much for criminal laws in the United States.

More likely this constitutes breach.

You would have to find the appropriate small claims court for this if you took it to court. You would have to figure out whom to serve the lawsuit to. The hours it would take to do all of this would be better spend doing actual work for money. Work it out privately with Amazon. Spread the story on social media if it doesn't work out.

If I spread the story on social media, will Amazon agree to give me a settlement?

so you need to prove damages. have hard evidence that losing that $50 caused you other problems. an example would be: Car insurance bounced because $50 was missing from the account. So you could ask for your money back plus the overdraft fee from the bank. this could all be substantiated in court.

just follow their complaints procedure.

stop using legal terms. unless you've studied law you'll just confuse yourself.

You're mixing civil and criminal suits. You are rewarded damages in civil suits and in very rare occasions in criminal suits you can be paid damages. But some automated system accidentally charging you a small claims amount of money is something you're expected to contact support to sort out, not sperg out and sue them.

You are not reward based on illegality of their actions, you're paid damages to be made whole, the only reason you'd get more than $50 in this event is if you can prove some kind of damages.

Just to be perfectly clear the reason you see people getting huge settlements from corporations, which is what I assume is the reason you're doing this idiocy, is because they can prove that those corporations are directly responsible for some kind of hard to define suffering and to make them whole for that suffering the corporation needs to pay them damages for some kind of physical or mental trauma they've suffered that is expected to last the rest of their lives. You're out $50 and they'll be required to make you whole by paying you $50.

Can I sue just over the fact that they stole from my account, without proving specific damages?

If all of that is true, is that only because it would be assumed that Amazon taking my money was unintentional on their part?

In theory, if they had stolen money from me willfully/intentionally, then would I be able to sue them for substantially more, over the fact that they willfully committed a crime against me? (I am not saying that they did willfully commit a crime against me, nor do I intend to "prove" that they did; this may be a matter only of negligence on their part; but I ask this question only to gain a better understanding of the legal system)

>going through legal hell for 50 bucks

Bro. Just call them and complain or open a ticket. You'll get your $50 back and a free month of prime.

The better questions is, did they do more than $50 in damages and could your prove that? If no, then no, you're not getting a million $ settlement. Did they overdraw your account or was your account overdrawn because of their withdraw and was there a $20 fee from the bank? If yes, then congrats, you'd get $70.

no, that would be pressing charges. not sueing. and like I've already said, what they did wasn't illegal, even if it was a mistake and you are in the right. they probably just don't believe you. just call and bitch harder. thats really the only answer.

Again, contact your credit union and tell them you didn't authorize the charge. It's as simple as that and then your credit union will go after Amazon for you.

That's what you're supposed to do.

>If all of that is true, is that only because it would be assumed that Amazon taking my money was unintentional on their part?

That's the bit where you're mixing a civil and criminal case. If they intentionally stole from you then it's not about how much they owe you it's about how they should be punished for breaking the law which is not measured in giving you money, it's paying fines and not to you. But that's irrelevant because you have more chance of literally convincing an amazon chairperson to pay you a million dollars by running into them on the street and charming them than you have getting criminal charges brought down on them for some clearly and provable automated process charging you sub $100, especially if they probably have a system to make you whole if you bring it to their attention.

Remember you'd have to prove intent in a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt and Amazon definitely didn't intentionally steal $50 from you.

>In theory, if they had stolen money from me willfully/intentionally, then would I be able to sue them for substantially more

No, if you could prove they had intentionally stolen money from you then they would be liable to have charges brought up for criminal wrongdoing and probably have to pay some fines, they would simply have to make you whole and the rest would be between them and the state.

You're absolute best case if you insist on going through legal means is small claims court awarding you $50 plus whatever provable damage losing them money hurt you, you might be able to get some kind of negligible psychological shit, probably not this would be decided by a judge, not a jury.

>that is criminal theft.

This is a common mistake: conflating criminal and civil courts.

If you bring this to the police, they may hand it to a prosecutor who may bring charges for the theft. In theory, this could be theft in your state, depending on the "mens rea" (criminal state of mind i.e. intent to commit a crime) required by your state laws. They would be forced to return the money and pay a fine to the state for their crime. In practice, no prosecutor is going to waste one fucking second of his time for a $50 theft.

What you're thinking of when you say "lawsuit" is a *civil* case, not a criminal one. Two entirely separate matters. There are two separate sets of rules for evidence and procedure in criminal matters, and that's just at the federal level. State level will have that distinction, as well as separate distinctions for different court levels that depend on states (small claims, justice court, superior court, etc.). The tort (i.e. the thing you're complaining about) would be "conversion" or its equivalent, possibly breach of contract

$50 would be filed in small claims, and in most small claims courts you'll have to represent yourself (you can consult a lawyer about your case for a grand or two, but you'll have to do your own arguing in court). You may get additional damages above and beyond the $50, though most states won't give attorneys fees for conversion (maybe for breach). Maybe you win the ghetto lottery and get $2000 in punitive damages. Far more likely, you get your $50 after about 60-100 hours of invested time. Amazon will argue (successfully) that they had no intent to take your money unlawfully, point to something in their terms of service indicating that you authorized direct payment, and offer to just give the $50 back. The judge will agree and that's what you'll get for all that time and effort.

Just call them again. You'll fix it in a couple hours. Be thankful, you could be charged $200 just to be told that shit.

Can I complain enough to get them to give me extra, and if so how would I go about it? I believe it is fair that they give me extra since they stole from me, and I have hardly any money so now I have to be even more broke than normal until I get this resolved

ask Trezor

I just read this entire thread, are you for fucking real OP? Like really? You keep saying you want more then the 50 bucks back, you must have a figure in mind, how much exactly do you think amazon owes you in addition to the 50? Are you in California, and if so can I meet you? I want to see what the person looks like who would actually have this kind of thought process. I would legit pay you 50 dollars just so I could meet you and shake my head.

If by more you mean like a $10 giftcard maybe but it wouldn't be worth minimum wage. If by more you mean some delusional amount that would be worth anywhere near your time? no fucking way.

>OP on the right

oh user this is terrible. maybe you should show up at their offices in the USA with a weapon and get a refund in blood.

I don't know how much. 1 cent or 10 trillion dollars, or somewhere in between.
No I don't live in California but I'll meet you if you come to where I live.

Troll confirmed.

rolling for this

How old are you? Do you live with your parents?

he's just an idiot. if he were trolling he'd be on /adv/

rolling again for this OP.

20-something. No.
I am not going to do anything illegal. If their office was nearby I might go, but I would not bring a weapon and I would not do anything illegal.

This fuckin thread is the break from crypto shilling I didn't know I needed.

You go, angry user. Never let common sense, reason, or reality stand in the way of your misguided and austistic rage

Law fag here.

You will get nothing. The banks and courts will laugh at your face if you try to bring a case for $50. You would not be awarded punitive damages as you would have to prove gross negligence or intent.

Basically you are a silly neet who needs to re-evaluate there life decisions if $50 is seriously making you upset.

You want to try your luck getting money from a law suit then please just get hit by a car, as you can get money from insurance company as well as neetbux from disability welfafe

Lol good luck suing one of the largest companies in the world over $50. Are you fucking for real? Go to small claims court you faggot.

You’re completely deluded. I WON a case against two guys that broke into and stole my $35k car, caused $8k in damage... guess what happened. Absolutely fucking nothing, except they did goto jail. I didn’t get shit.

lololol typical american, I used to work at Netflix chat support and every now and then I would get some idiotic americans claiming they would sue Netflix because we charged them twice for 7.99 (some guy at CS forgot to cancel the account correctly)

Is this faggot for real trying to sue one of biggest companies of the world over 50$? Please contact Amazon to ask for chatlogs explaining you will sue them so that they can have a laugh at your sad ass you fucking clown

AHAHAHA HADGHAD