Need to sue LADWP - what kind of lawyer do I need?
 

I moved out of my downtown LA condo Oct 2013. I called to end service. I moved to the OC with a different utility.

Apparently, they never turned off/transferred the units power, and whoever moved in there has been using power to the tune of $300-$500/month.

Now they are sending me invoices for this shit at my new address... Trying to get anyone on the phone at LADWP is pointless -- wait times are outrageous and when I finally get through I'm sure they are going to some how blame me.

I'd rather just skip all that and hire a lawyer right off the bat to handle this for me.

What type of lawyer would I hire, anyone got recommendations for one in the LA area?
Obviously, I'm not going to sue them right off the bat, but if they keep pushing the issue or try to ding my credit -- then I'm going to take them to court. For now though, I'm sure a lawyer will deal with this faster than me trying to personally.

Not even sure how this happened as the building would have required the new tenant to show proof of LADWP account, which means LADWP would also have known that a new person is in that unit - regardless if they lost my turn off request or not.

It can go away with something as simple as your confirmation number for the cancellation of the service. Every call has one when they open or close a service. They should have offered it to you on the call.

Otherwise, I think if you don't have the confirmation of the canceling of the service in some form, you could be in trouble.

Sorry to hear. Most of the people who work at these places are mouth breathing keyboard punchers that just punch the clock, do their 8 hours and go home. No incentive to get anything right.

Its been almost a year, I don't have the confirmation number anymore.

They are mailing me at my new address though which also shows that they know I'm not at the old one anymore, and they dont service this county.

lol, LADWP just told me that they havent been acting on disconnects and collections for the past year, (which is why that asshole new tenant's service is still on!) and have just started doing so again and he will be shut off soon -- which is why I just started receiving the invoices now.

anyhow, she gave me a post office address to mail in a dispute to inform them that im not the one living there anymore and a supervisor is gonna take a look at my account to find my disconnect (hopefully).


gonna try this shit first i guess... seems like dealing with LADWP as a public entity is a huge bitch.

Wow. Gotta love the utility companies. Unbelievable.

I had the opposite problem.

My house was a model house for the community, and was built before they had roads here. The builder turned the power on. When I moved in, I went to have the power turned on in my name and they said "no such address". They weren't too helpful and I wasn't in a hurry being I was getting free power. Six months later they finally sent someone out to look at the meter itself... Turns out it was hooked up through a "master account" for the builder who has hundreds of model homes on this account, and they would have never have noticed anything if I didn't tell them.

In the end the power company put it in my name, and I got six months of power for free.

How did they get your new address?

I like how when you wanna cancel a cable channel you have to call in. Yet you can order hundreds of dollars of pay per view movies by clicking a few buttons on your remote from the couch. Make it easy to spend but hard to stop the spending. :1orglaugh

go to their office :2 cents: just request to cancel dont say too much. get a membership at pre-paid legal talk to an attorney there :2 cents: document everything stop posting findings here they may use it against you.

Exactly my point... they couldn't have it unless I called in and gave it to them for my final statement almost a year ago.

I would call and talk to a supervisor and ask for their names (let them know your writing it down) tell them your story and keep calling till they fix it.
Try this site out http://turn.org/consumer-tools/complaint.html

they also record most of the conversations. i had an experience with them where they promised us something (from a phone call 4 months earlier) where the supervisor put me on hold for about 10 mins to go and listen to the exact phone call in question. just FYI :)

A lawyer can't do anything for you unless there are damages. Meaning you'll have to wait until something happens with your credit , for instance, before you can file suit.