Sunday, April 22, 2012

Class action lawsuit

Last Thursday (4/19) I received an email from an attorney's office requesting participation in a class action lawsuit against the IRS. First, I am not a litigious person.  I believe in our legal system, but unfortunately the magnitude of this issue overshadows the need to seek retribution.  But I would rather see our government throw its weight behind changing laws, policies, and practices to overhaul both the technical and human elements of its security and privacy systems - vice going crazy over playing damage control over some tax returns.

Here is the text from the email:

"You are receiving this email as one of our potential class members in the suit we have filed for refunds from the IRS. 

We filed our suit naming Chris and Jay Gordon as named plaintiffs.  Within two days, the Gordon’s received their refund.  This gives the IRS a chance to argue that the Gordon’s cannot bring suit since they were paid and, therefore have no “standing” to sue.  Because of this, we amended the complaint and added Crystal Lake as a named plaintiff.  Within days, Crystal received her refund.  The IRS has now filed a motion to dismiss claiming that the Gordon’s and Ms. Lake lack standing to sue.  This type of behavior happens a lot in the class action arena.  However, courts have come to recognize that, in most cases where a defendant’s conduct toward the plaintiff changes after a suit has been filed, the defendant has not turned over a new leaf but is trying to undermine the lawsuit.  Accordingly, when this occurs, the courts now place the burden on the defendant to prove that it is not merely trying to disqualify the named plaintiffs.  Unfortunately, when the federal government is the defendant, the standard is different.  The burden is on us to prove the IRS is taking deliberate steps to eliminate our named plaintiffs by providing refunds to plaintiffs after they are named in the suit.  Accordingly, we wish to file an additional amended complaint with more named plaintiffs.  Many of you have indicated in the past that you would be willing to serve as a named representative party plaintiff.  I have attached a form retainer agreement.  If you are interested in actively participating, please sign the retainer letter return it to us.  Please note, our amended complaint must be filed by Monday (April 23) so we'll need a quick response."

There are approximately 215,000,000 taxpayers in the United States. Of that, approximately 460,000 individuals have been reported affected by tax fraud since 2008. That is roughly less that a quarter of a percent of all taxpayers affected by this despicable crime. Yes - IT SUCKS. However, I just want my tax return. I don't need to sue Uncle Sam - just do what's right, okay?



1 comment:

  1. you always do what's right Em. good luck. and you're such a good writer; think about writing a book. (not about tax fraud though lol-something inspirational) april

    ReplyDelete