| Vom Thema belegte Seiten: < [1 2] | Need ammunition to fight an unjust Small Claims Court decision! Initiator des Themas: Trudy Peters
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lien
Niederlande
Local time: 18:01
Englisch > Französisch
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| Forget about it | Aug 30, 2004 |
Trudy Peters wrote:
He never paid the invoice, because HE had not been paid by HIS client!!
Well, after 8 months of this[...]
But guess what?? The magistrate and reviewing judge found in the defendant’s favor!!! I am so furious I can’t see straight! [...]
And all this over $100! [...]
I just want the judge to find in my favor. I'm going to take this all the way to the Supreme Court, if I have to.
[/quote]
8 months of problems, grudge, anger, humiliation and all that for $100 ? You don't know what you do to yourself.
I would just do what someone said : be sure that the name of this man is known of all the translators lists and forget about it.
You know, what goes around comes around.
[Edited at 2004-08-30 13:11]
| | | | | not worth it | Aug 30, 2004 |
Trudy, all this trouble and blood-curdling red tape ain't worth it. Breath deep, take it easy, forget about it. Sometimes we just know that a rock won't budge.
M
| | | | Marc P (X) 
Local time: 18:01
Deutsch > Englisch
+ ...
| Moral of the story | Aug 30, 2004 |
Payment up front when working for lawyers.
Marc
| | | | | Let me tell you about my experience with a lawyer | Aug 30, 2004 |
There was this lawyer, a public prosecutor no less, who wanted me to translate some case papers involving first information report, police diary entries, affidavits et al from Tamil to English. His representative came to my house carrying the papers. I gave him my rates and demanded an advance amounting to Rs.500, for an anticipated bill of around Rs.5000. He agreed and paid me the advance. The next day he was to come and collect the translation in hard copy, as he did not trust the email. Next ... See more There was this lawyer, a public prosecutor no less, who wanted me to translate some case papers involving first information report, police diary entries, affidavits et al from Tamil to English. His representative came to my house carrying the papers. I gave him my rates and demanded an advance amounting to Rs.500, for an anticipated bill of around Rs.5000. He agreed and paid me the advance. The next day he was to come and collect the translation in hard copy, as he did not trust the email. Next day afternoon I phoned the lawyer's representative to come and collect the translation after paying the difference of Rs.4,500. Now this lawyer bloke comes on the line and tells me that the rate ie too high and the work is worth just Rs.500 he paid me as advance. I told him politely that he will get the translation only on paying my demanded amount. He didn't. But then his advance remained forefeited. Even though I worked for nothing, I was satisfied that the work was not handed over. The invoice is still in my bill book serving me as reminder not to trust lawyers. At least I retained the advance.
When I related this incident to a lawyer friend of mine, he just laughed and told me I should never trust lawyers. This was yesterday and today I am writing this posting. What a coincidence!
Regards,
N.Raghavan
[Edited at 2004-08-30 15:16] ▲ Collapse
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Deborah Workman
Vereinigte Staaten
Local time: 12:01
Spanisch > Englisch
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| From my own small claims experience | Aug 31, 2004 |
Trudy
Luis is right. The issue is whether or not you can make a "legal" case. Henry, and the others who urge you to drop the matter are right, too, if you can't make such a case.
I perfectly understand your wanting to be vindicated. I went to small claims for the same reason. I sold some office equipment to a small businessowner who agreed to pay me in installments over several months and defaulted after the first month. After months of trying without success to ... See more Trudy
Luis is right. The issue is whether or not you can make a "legal" case. Henry, and the others who urge you to drop the matter are right, too, if you can't make such a case.
I perfectly understand your wanting to be vindicated. I went to small claims for the same reason. I sold some office equipment to a small businessowner who agreed to pay me in installments over several months and defaulted after the first month. After months of trying without success to get him to pay up something, I went to Small Claims. Mediation (a required first step) failed, so we went before the judge. I came wih a ream of documentation (invoices and emails, checks with his signature on them indicating that he had honored the arrangement, a chronology of the various stages of our dealings before and after I handed over the office equipment to him). He came with nothing. (It didn't matter, really. My documentation was the full transcript of our relationship.) Since, when he left the courtroom he owed me about three times what he'd owed me going in (because I was awarded additional damages and costs), he understandably left the courtroom promising that he would take the matter to a higher court. He didn't go through with it though. The appeals court will do a de novo review ONLY if it is given supporting evidence that is different from what was provided in the first hearing. The businessowner couldn't provide it because it didn't exist.
Obviously my situation isn't the same as yours. I was the one who got satisfaction, and the defendant was the one without documentation. Perhaps I could have told you more briefly not to think of appealing unless you can really present a better case (i.e., documentatary evidence) than you did the first time around. It's not worth the fees, the delays, the disruption to your life.
Not to raise your hopes to much, but here's an option you might pursue. If the judge ruled that the attorney doesn't owe you, did he leave open the door that the client might owe you? It is illegal to accept work and not pay for it. There is a whole body of law that argues that if you stand by and do nothing and allow work to be done to your benefit, you are liable to pay for it even if you never asked for it to be done. (I'm not sure how this fits with the law that says if you receive something unsolicited in the mail, you don't have to return it or pay for it, but evidently these two laws are not contradictory.) There is also a body of law that says that if you allow someone to act in your name, then you are responsible for his/her actions, whether or not they took actions of which you approve. The judge relied on these two bodies of law (in addition to my documentation) to find in my favor. You might rely on the same law to approach the client directly. They (presumably) accepted the work and allowed the attorney to contract for services on their behalf. The only problem I see with your approaching the client directly (if you can) is that you may need evidence from the attorney that the client received the translation and has not paid for it. (The attorney might be glad to help if it'll get you off his back. Maybe the attorney would write a statement formally transferring to you the debt owed to him, thereby giving you the right to collect on that debt. I have experience with this, too, and it worked for me. The statement is a paragraph about six lines long.) One good thing about this approach is that once the client is aware that it owes you $100, it probably won't want to go to small claims over the amount; corporations are required to have attorney representation in court, and that would cost well over $100. So the client might simply cut you a check and that will be the end of it.
I agree with the others who have cautioned you against taking the humiliation route. You're not in a David & Goliath situation, which is what the media likes best (but mainly for consumer issues, which yours is not). Your story is not of a huge, outrageous wrong that the general public can identify with. So, taking this to the local media could backfire. No matter how noble you feel, you may end up coming off as litigious or unprofessional, unable to deal with the normal ups and downs of business. And if you appear too ready to go to court, it may harm you in getting future work generally.
It doesn't much matter, though, what I and the others say. You need to do what brings you peace and what you feel will be most constructive for your future where you live, with this attorney and/or his client, and for your dealings with future translation clients.
[...edited...]
Best to you. May you have peace about this soon!
Deborah ▲ Collapse
| | | | Trudy Peters
Vereinigte Staaten
Local time: 12:01
Deutsch > Englisch
+ ...
THEMENSTARTER
lien wrote:
>>I would just do what someone said : be sure that the name of this man is known of all the translators lists and forget about it.
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Trudy Peters
Vereinigte Staaten
Local time: 12:01
Deutsch > Englisch
+ ...
THEMENSTARTER | My message won't show up!!! | Aug 31, 2004 |
What am I doing wrong?
[Edited at 2004-08-31 20:35]
| | | | | Don't lose heart. I am making it visible in the "quote" area | Sep 1, 2004 |
There is something funny about the forum postings. Sometimes they don't show up. In that case just click the reply with quote button and there you have it, your invisible posting as quote in the next posting.
Regards,
N.Raghavan
[quote]Trudy Peters wrote: My message won't show up. What am I doing wrong?
lien wrote:
>>I would just do what someone said : be sure that the name of this man is known of all the translators lists and forget about it.
| | | | Claudia Iglesias
Chile
Local time: 12:01
Mitglied (2002)
Spanisch > Französisch
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| The problem is in the signs | Sep 1, 2004 |
Trudy Peters wrote:
lien wrote:
I would just do what someone said : be sure that the name of this man is known of all the translators lists and forget about it.
I already warned some of my competitors about him, since no doubt he'll have to find another company to do his work!
You know, what goes around comes around.
I know! Worked once before 
I think that now you're going to see it completely.
Use [Quote] instead of arrows. And close the quotes with a slash before "quote" between brackets.
Claudia
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