Linda
Koenigsberg, Esq.
1925 Brickell Avenue, Suite D-207
Miami, Florida 33129
Telephone: 305-657-6339
Fax: 305-858-9783
July 9, 2004
Honorable Clay
Shaw
Chairman
Subcommittee on Social Security
Committee on Ways and Means
B-316 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 2515
RE: HR 2971 /
EPIC letter
Dear Chairman
Shaw:
I appreciate the
opportunity to provide a practicing attorney’s viewpoint on the above
referenced matter. I was asked to review the EPIC letter language
concerning use of court orders to authorize credit header searches. I
have been a member of the Florida Bar since 1976 and have a wide
variety of experience in civil matters. Currently, I work for an
insurance defense firm specializing in trucking accidents. I have
tried many cases over the years, and a routine part of that practice
has involved locating and deposing or interviewing witnesses.
I wanted to
point out certain inadequacies that I find in the above referenced
EPIC letter. An attorney cannot simply file a request for a judge to
act. There has to be a cause of action (tort, contract, divorce, etc.)
and a complaint filed based on that cause of action with the result
that the defendant is then required to be served and put on notice.
Even in those cases where there is an active lawsuit, no attorney
would want to apprise the other party that they have hired an
investigator to perform specific actions. By doing so, the legislature
would be forcing attorneys to divulge matters which are otherwise
protected by the laws of the land.
There is no
present law or other requirement, at least in Florida, of which I am
aware that would force an attorney to provide the name of the
investigator and the subject matter of their requested task except
when the testimony or product of the investigator is to be used in
trial or under extremely unusual circumstances. To do so would
undermine the protected thought processes of the attorney and would
therefore be detrimental to the client’s case.
Any attorney who
is attempting to obtain information to locate individuals in order to
serve them with notice of a claim against them, attempting to locate
witnesses, attempting to locate heirs, attempting to collect on a
judgment, and the hundreds of other reasons that one may wish to find
an individual would find that the process put forward in the EPIC
letter is ludicrous, unwieldy, not cost effective, not time effective
and generally not of benefit to the parties in need.
In complex civil
and criminal cases, the number of court orders, the amount of money ,
and the amount of wasted time for such filings, motions, and court
appearances becomes mind boggling.
I urge you to
not consider the use of court orders as a remedy to the situation
involving the use of credit headers.
Thank you for
your consideration of my opinion on this matter.
Very truly yours,
Linda Koenigsberg
LK:dmk
