<p>Can I barf on your things for free, or is it ‘all about the money’?</p>
<p>Vanagandr, clearly you have very little comprehension of the practice of law. The roommate threw up accidently over some of the OP’s belongings. It is a shared room. Your argument is invalid. </p>
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<p>The roommate is a bad one - there are no doubts about that. If I were the roommate (which is a big hypothetical because I would never have done what he had done), I would have tried to reimburse the OP out of guilt. Clearly the roommate has issues and is empathetic to no cause but his own. I would be mightily ****ed as well. I might even think about changing rooms if these shenanigans continued. I don’t like to generalize about a person’s attitude from one scenario, but this roommate seems unreliable and foolish. The OP should confront him and simply ask if he can pay for new belongings that he needs. What is he going to do face to face, say no? I have a feeling he might have to man up in that situation. </p>
<p>As to suing the roommate, you have no idea what on Earth you are talking about. Do you know how much legal counsel costs an hour? A great amount. You discuss suing him for every penny to his name, but that is unrealistic. Do you know what you sound like? An ambulance chasing personal attorney - the scum of scum. Perhaps there is a career in that for you. But in the real world, I doubt anyone but an ultra-sleazy lawyer would take that case to a small claims court. This is not a drunk driver who caused you to break 10 bones - that is a case where money comes more into play. An intelligent person who wants legal counsel needs to maximize the gains. At the rate lawyers sell their services at today, it would actually be a great loss fiscally for the OP. How much money would he be compensated with if he wasn’t laughed out of court first? Probably no more than the cost of the belongings that were damaged. </p>
<p>So maybe you find a lawyer that charges $150/hour (you’d be lucky to get that price) and you would ultimately gain $200 in damages. Well, gee, that sounds like a bargain! You will not get every “penny to their name” because a roommate vomited. If you think that is the case then cast aside your delusional thinking for reality. The action of suing the roommate would be extreme. In fact, if my plan didn’t work through confronting the roommate directly and asking him to recoup the damaged items, my initial reaction might be to notify the university; however, this is also an extreme measure because I would hate to see the OP embroiled in something like this. He may even attach a negative stigma to his name with an overreaction. The OP doesn’t want to paint a “scarlet symbol” on his chest that reads: $. Although, the university may take direct action against the roommate which definitely would be the lesser of two evils. </p>
<p>Vanagandr, I don’t intend to be aggressive towards you, but I don’t think you understand the law. Unless an attorney wanted to rip you off and take your money, a case such as this would be laughed at. And who would being paying for this said lawyer? The OP? No, in all likeliness, it would be the parents who I hope would have more sense. You need to learn to be a little civil.</p>
<p>Tinfoyl - small claims trials do not require lawyers. This reveals your lack of knowledge and thus lack of authority on this matter. Your argument is thus null.</p>
<p>The most the roommate would be responsible for is the cleaning bill. </p>
<p>Move on, dudes - get over it.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I guess all went well. Did you hear back from your roommate, OP?</p>
<p>I know you’re tired of people asking this, but now I’m curious to know what happened to the roomie :p</p>