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So I have this situation.
I worked at a restaurant as a temp job for almost a year, ending in June. Chanello's Pizza, run by Danielle Shamblin, as D&M Unlimited, Inc (dba Chanello's). In June, I left the job to move to California for an internship. I'm back in VA now.
So I knew I had 3 paychecks to come, and was going to have them mailed to me. I talked to Danielle every week or so, in regards to mailing the check, and she kept saying every week it was mailed, it was going to be mailed, it had been mailed, she had to re-mail it and re-issue it, so on and so forth. I didn't much mind - I left on pleasant terms, no problem, and if it took her time to mail it, that's fine, I appreciated it. After a few months, I knew something was fishy, and she stopped taking any calls and I couldn't get a hold of her.
I come back to VA after Thanksgiving, and find out she apparently left right after I did - she just ditched the store, and fucked everyone over (stringing me along the whole time). The old owner took over the store again, and apparently the IRS and all these people are owed a ton of money by her. From what I understand, she fled to Texas.
Now. I got one of the paychecks, but it was cancelled/bad, and I couldn't cash it. The other 2 paychecks, she must've kept, and I know (through her son) that they existed and she had them. I can't get the paychecks, and she has a lawyer representing her in Richmond, VA. She/they refuse to pay the paychecks, saying they'll pay that one bad paycheck, even though they still haven't done anything about it, and deny I worked for the time of the other 2 paychecks.
I got the time records or whatever proving that I worked there, and the records show exactly how many hours I worked and how much I should be paid. Her lawyer said they disagree about me working there, and say they don't believe those records.
I've went to the VA Department of Labor and Industry, and they say because her business no longer exists (D&M Unlimited), they can't do anything. Apparently, if you are a good person who issued a bad paycheck and are still in business, they can do something, but if you just fuck everyone over and flee the state, it's okay. So they won't help me. Corporate won't help me. The Civil claims court says I can't file a claim because I don't have her address to which to serve her, although I might be able to list her lawyer as whom to serve the papers to.
I just don't know what to do. A lawyer told me that I should call the police, because that single bad paycheck I have, is proof of a crime (bad check). I'm at my wits end here, I've tried searching online and I have no idea where she is (there's multiple addresses in Texas, no phone numbers, can't verify if it's her at any of those addresses or which one she's even at). I've called the police, but I don't know if they'll do anything about it though.
That's long. Basically I worked somewhere, I got 1 bad check and 2 more unpaid, and the Department of Labor won't do anything because she shut down her business and they can't do anything about businesses that aren't operating anymore and I can't file suit because she fled the state. I'm going to try to file a suit in civil court, and serve the papers to her lawyer, and try to get something going with the police, but I don't know.
 
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While I don't have any real legal advice I certainly can sympathize with you. Not getting paid for something sucks. Hopefully all turns out well and settled in the long run w/o too much effort on your part.
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If this woman screwed the IRS and her creditors out of their money, you're kind of low on the totem pole.
If they're telling you to go to the police do so, but don't hold out too much hope.
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Sounds like a shitty situation, Id just say youre out of luck and move on man =\
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I'd consider taking her to small claims court if it's a reasonable amount of money.
Edit: I mean serving her lawyer with the small claims summons since you don't know where she is.
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The thing I don't understand is why do you need her address to sue her? What kind of rule is that? What if she's homeless?
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On January 06 2012 06:24 Glacierz wrote:
The thing I don't understand is why do you need her address to sue her? What kind of rule is that? What if she's homeless?
Service of Process
You generally have to serve a legal notice to somebody in person, although the Wikipedia article goes into detail about the minutiae.
Edit: terms
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If such is the case why is it the victim's responsibility to find out her address?
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If the OP is able to get the police involved, it hopefully won't be his responsibility anymore.
But I doubt that.
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Hire a private investigator to find her address, and then go there and serve her the papers. Im sure it would only cost roughly $100, and you might be able to get that money back as well in small claims court.
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Calgary25977 Posts
I have no suggestions but that really sucks dude. She shouldn't get away with it. Get a few more details, post on Reddit and hope it blows up?
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Go to the poliice as adviced.
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Police cant do anything, they will just tell you to file a report and give him advice that he already received. Only way actually blow up this situation is what Chill said, use the internets to get this sucker. Shes also battling the IRS so its all fair.
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Good luck, hopefully you will can involved in a suit against her and get your money back. I doubt you will get paid without taking part in a suit at this point, good luck.
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Call the police first they will help you out more than posting on TL i promise.
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Tough luck man. Until the IRS sorts this out, you're going to be in limbo unless the company of her legal representation is prepared to re-imburse.
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Where's that smart ass TL lawyer guy when we need him? That does really suck, and I'm not sure what you can do about it seeing as it sounds like the owner doesn't have any money or assets to sue over. Even if she did, depending on how the business was structured it may not even be possible to sue her. LLC's specifically protect the assets of the owner from being liquidated to cover the liabilities of a business.
I guess there is a lesson to learn here though, don't let people string you along for weeks. You know now to report someone right away if you don't receive your paycheck for any reason.
On January 06 2012 07:17 Chill wrote:
I have no suggestions but that really sucks dude. She shouldn't get away with it. Get a few more details, post on Reddit and hope it blows up?
And this would do what exactly? Even if the powers of the internet can by some crazy circumstance find this woman, how is that going to help the OP to get his money back? If she even has any assets left, you are talking about spending quite a bit of time filing court paper work, followed by weeks of due process, after which she won't show up for the hearing anyway. In the end the court may order her to pay him but that doesn't mean she actually will. If she's not paying the IRS, what is the likelihood she is going to pay the OP. And after the amount of time and effort put in, you would probably have been able to easily make the money back working another job.
I know it sucks, but sometimes good people just get screwed. As long as you learn from the experience I think you can get something positive out of it.
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have 4chan fuck her complete life up.
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On January 06 2012 13:58 funkie wrote:
have 4chan fuck her complete life up.
This and what Chill said are kind of sad but sometimes work. if the IRS are on her case then I'm sure the police can somehow help you out.
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At this point I think the best advice is to try to put aside your negative emotions, and take the action that makes the most sense for you now, and going into the future. How much time is it going to take you to track her down? How much mental and emotional strain is it going to put you through? How much will it cost to pursue her in civil court? Compare that with the value of the unpaid cheques, and then take into account the chance that even if you track her down she may not have enough money.
It probably isn't worth your trouble?
If you really need an emotional release against her, I'd say make the criminal complaint.
Just remember: if the value of the cheques doesn't justify the effort required, forgetting it ever happened is good and healthy for you. If you're up late at night and can't get it out of your head, think "I need to be selfish and just let this slide. It is the selfish decision to just let it go." When you think of letting it go as selfish, it really strongly affirms that it is in YOUR best interest. Ignore the inequity; just be selfish and let it go.
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Her name is Danielle Suzanne Shamblin, and her husband is Michael Ray Shamblin. I know they are somewhere in Texas, as the attorney has said, but when searching online I get multiple or inconsistent records, if at all (they seem to indicate largely that she's in Arlington, TX). The problem with filing a small claims court or going to the police is if I can't get her address, then I'm not allowed to file anything.
Like how fucked up is that. Someone who doesn't pay you roughly $800 in paychecks probably doesn't want to be found, so as long as they flee the state, and hide somewhere, then it's totally okay to fuck people over. But if you are an upstanding businessman who keeps your business running, or is locatable, particularly in the same state, then they can do something about it. As if people who screw over their employees for nearly a grand are going to be the same kind of people who stick around town and tell everyone where they live. pfft.
I'm going to go to small claims court, and have them issue it to the lawyer, and hope that flies.
I'm also going to talk to the police, again. I talked to them once, and within 20 seconds they forwarded me to the magistrate, who was a total dick but said I need to get a police report on it, and have them list address as unknown, and just give the lawyer's info and the possible addresses I found as pertinent information.
But since it's a fucking felony amount of money, I can't issue the warrant myself, I have to get a police investigator to handle it. Just how grand is that, if you fuck over someone for just $10 on their paycheck, they can get in big trouble, but if it's for a shitton of money, then it has to be authorized, a police officer has to take the case, et cetera.
So hopefully I'm going to get a felony case going with the police, and use it as pressure against the lawyer. I mean, there's not much to it, it's just going to be there and it's out of my control. But it's the least I can do. Secondly, I'll file a small claims court warrant in debt, and hopefully a judge may see what I'm talking about.
I have no suggestions but that really sucks dude. She shouldn't get away with it. Get a few more details, post on Reddit and hope it blows up?
hahahahaha. really. Hm... I'll go see what happens on monday with filing the claim and felony charges first.
Hire a private investigator to find her address, and then go there and serve her the papers. Im sure it would only cost roughly $100, and you might be able to get that money back as well in small claims court.
I'm in VA, she's in TX. It'll be more than $100, but she owes me about $800 so sure. The issue is that can the investigator actually get anything done though?
Call the police first they will help you out more than posting on TL i promise.
Read the thread first bro.
If the OP is able to get the police involved, it hopefully won't be his responsibility anymore.
But I doubt that.
The police and civil claims court are two different things. So filing the police claim won't do anything in regards to me getting money at all, it just makes her a felon and makes life hard for her. It's also the right thing to do bro!
Seriously though, I need that money, I've needed that money. So putting a felony charge on her will only help with getting her put in a situation where she is forced to pay me, because she's obviously not going to do it on her own accord.
Which means I have to go to civil court to get the money back. But it would help, I suppose, if she was a felon, and the court knew she had a felony for writing a bad paycheck to me, since that's what we're going to court over in the first place.
Technically those 2 other paychecks were made, and are bad paychecks, and are felonies too, but I never got them. That one paycheck, I have, which was cancelled, is a clear bad paycheck, boom, felony. The other two, well, I just don't have the 'evidence' for, but I can definitely claim them in civil court using the time records from the work.
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So I'm all for finding her online, but all the websites I come across require payment.
I'm all for paying for the records, but I can't tell which site is the best to pay for, and if the site is even legit.
Anyone know what the best people locator site is?
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Spokeo is pretty good i'd say, looks legit. here: Spokeo
searched for myself and a few friends, and found them (with limited information, as you need to pay to see everything). however with asian and middle eastern immigrants, it gets tricky for obvious reasons, so i couldn't find some of my co-workers who immigrated here from hong kong
sorry about that man, hope you burn her ass once you find her
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I don't know much about business but the one thing that you do not fuck around with, is paying people.
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On January 08 2012 05:34 TangFish wrote:Spokeo is pretty good i'd say, looks legit. here: Spokeosearched for myself and a few friends, and found them (with limited information, as you need to pay to see everything). however with asian and middle eastern immigrants, it gets tricky for obvious reasons, so i couldn't find some of my co-workers who immigrated here from hong kong sorry about that man, hope you burn her ass once you find her
yea that was weird. how does it know she likes christian music. Or is that made up?
The issue is, if I pay for it, will it be worth it?
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On January 08 2012 07:44 Belial88 wrote:
yea that was weird. how does it know she likes christian music. Or is that made up?
The issue is, if I pay for it, will it be worth it?
well, try searching other people you know and judge whether it is credible. i don't know about the christian music thing though, i didn't see that kind of stuff when i searched my friends.. maybe it is linked to a social network that she has an account with, as it pulls personal information from them. and since this is for the purpose of only her, it does feel rather sketchy.
hm. there's a seven day free trial for PeopleSmart, and there appears to be a 42 year old Danielle S Shamblin. i guess it's free lol.. dunno man.
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On January 08 2012 07:44 Belial88 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 08 2012 05:34 TangFish wrote:Spokeo is pretty good i'd say, looks legit. here: Spokeosearched for myself and a few friends, and found them (with limited information, as you need to pay to see everything). however with asian and middle eastern immigrants, it gets tricky for obvious reasons, so i couldn't find some of my co-workers who immigrated here from hong kong sorry about that man, hope you burn her ass once you find her yea that was weird. how does it know she likes christian music. Or is that made up? The issue is, if I pay for it, will it be worth it?
I have access spokeo, I can look it up for you. I will pm you the details
edit: found the same person tang
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I support the idea of perhaps trying Reddit. If you can just get her address or find her in Texas, they can help you out. Since you know what she looks like, her husband or relations, it narrows it down a lot. It also helps that you know her previous residences or businesses.
Good luck!
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I feel that you should file the police report. In case she gets caught doing something else, you will definitely be able to follow up.
EDIT: I assume this is not her? http://twitter.com/daniellebitch
LoL.
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^ That is not her.She is 42 years old, and has blonde (bleached?) hair. She just took down the 'proxy' facebook account where she was posting on facebook using her 2 year old granddaughterss name.
I just did that free peoplecheck report.
It says she's in mechanicsville,va. Unless she actually never left the state and is still in the same address, that is wrong. I suppose it's possible everyone has said she's in texas and she isn't... i mean i could just drive there, since mechanicsville is basically richmond... but um... yea. That's what I mean by i dont want to pay for a report to get a wrong report.
Or maybe that address would be good enough for filing for court?
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while I can understand that the situation the OP is in sucks, you should refrain from publicly denouncing people. Even though you might be in the right it can get tricky. At least here in Germany you only hurt your own case when you make any information public and you might even get sued by the guy you are talking about. So you should talk to an admin here so he deletes this thread.
What really bugs me is that US still seems to rely heavily on paychecks. Personally I dont know any work here that would give you a paycheck, it's really outdated at least here.
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On January 09 2012 10:48 Skilledblob wrote:
while I can understand that the situation the OP is in sucks, you should refrain from publicly denouncing people. Even though you might be in the right it can get tricky. At least here in Germany you only hurt your own case when you make any information public and you might even get sued by the guy you are talking about. So you should talk to an admin here so he deletes this thread.
What really bugs me is that US still seems to rely heavily on paychecks. Personally I dont know any work here that would give you a paycheck, it's really outdated at least here.
It's not that the US is outdated. It's that the place he worked was outdated. Big corporations/government always do direct deposit.
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The only advice I have is make sure it is worth your time and emotional stress. And quite frankly, the search for her seems to be in vain because she was operating as head of the company, so all her actions were done in the name of the company. You have no legal recourse towards her personally and only have a claim to whatever cash remains from the liquidation of the company (if it comes to that). Just file your claim with the company and move on.
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On January 09 2012 11:04 Sufficiency wrote:Show nested quote +On January 09 2012 10:48 Skilledblob wrote:
while I can understand that the situation the OP is in sucks, you should refrain from publicly denouncing people. Even though you might be in the right it can get tricky. At least here in Germany you only hurt your own case when you make any information public and you might even get sued by the guy you are talking about. So you should talk to an admin here so he deletes this thread.
What really bugs me is that US still seems to rely heavily on paychecks. Personally I dont know any work here that would give you a paycheck, it's really outdated at least here. It's not that the US is outdated. It's that the place he worked was outdated. Big corporations/government always do direct deposit.
That and a lot of people still prefer the touch and feel of a check in their hands and/or don't have a bank account. You'd be surprised how fearful some people are of financial institutions.
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As mentioned already, post it on Reddit.
You should get more than enough manpower to help your cause there.
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In all honesty, if she owes a lot of money to the IRS i doubt your chances of getting something back are over 20%.
This seems kinda stupid, isn't it the police job's to find out about people? And shouldn't police work hand-in-hand with the justice system?
Anyway, trying a private investigator sounds like the best idea so far, so you can get her adress and sue her. However keep in mind that there's chances you're not gonna see your money back (or at least it might take a lot of time) so you know how much you can afford to "waste" on a detective.
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I posted on reddit, I got one post that wasn't helpful. I posted it in r/legal.
I'm just going to list her lawyer, and the address that seems most likely.
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On January 11 2012 04:43 Belial88 wrote:
I posted on reddit, I got one post that wasn't helpful. I posted it in r/legal.
I'm just going to list her lawyer, and the address that seems most likely.
best of luck man, hope things work out
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Hopefully you can start a shitstorm on reddit. Can you link us to your post on reddit?
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On January 13 2012 12:49 PenguinWithNuke wrote:
Hopefully you can start a shitstorm on reddit. Can you link us to your post on reddit?
Same. I can't find it.
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I can just imagine the Fox News headlines.. "Internet Thugs Shakedown Legitimate Businesswoman"
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http://www.reddit.com/r/legal/comments/o62wc/unable_to_get_3_paychecks_because_owner_fled/
Not much help there.
So here's an update:
1. The police said that in order for them to begin thinking about bringing criminal charges, is I need to show proof that I requested the paycheck, and didn't get it. So this requires me to send a Certified Mail thing to them, asking for the paycheck (that one that I clearly couldn't cash). It's a mail thing that the post office sends a guy to the lawyers office, he signs for it, and then I get a thing back saying they signed for it. I have a copy of the letter that I sent certified mail. If I don't get a paycheck in 15 days of them receiving this letter of mine, 'officially' demanding the paycheck, then the police might have a case.
However, if she simply went bankrupt (and the cop said if she has a lawyer, she probably is then), then that isn't criminal. You can't be charged with a felony for a bad check because you have no money, it has to be criminal intent.
So i sent the certified mail out, I got back saying the lawyer received, and I'll show it to the police (its been about 15 days now). They can decide if it's a crime.
2. I have civil court set early in february. I have learned also, that it turns out Danielle skipped out on the last paycheck of EVERYONE at the pizza shop, and that the new owners (or old, as they were whom danielle bought it from) covered their paychecks out of good grace. I'm going to ask the new owners if there was any sort of agreement, because if they can cover the paychecks, that that'd be fine with me. I'm just trying to get my paychecks. So... i don't know, that's just interesting. It'd certainly be something worth mentioning in court.
A lot of the Chanello's employees are also interested in coming to court with me as well. It turns out managers never got bonuses they were contractually promised, everyone apparently didn't get their paychecks (they were just covered by the new owners so they didn't raise a stink), and EVERYONE is missing their W-2s so everyone is actually fucked at the store and kind of scrambling about the tax stuff.
So. I don't know, I don't see how it can go wrong. I'll just see in court, but I got to take the matter to the police in regards to the bad check now, and I got to talk to the new owners to see what was up with them paying everyone else.
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Okay, so I went to court in small claims.
They asked for it to be "removed to general court", meaning it's going to trial.
Meaning that her lawyer can speak on her behalf there (lawyers aren't allowed in small claims court). So I might need a lawyer. I'm going to phone consult with a few lawyers to see what I should do, but I mailed a bill of particulars (necessity apparently for moving to general court, it's a requirement) stating why I'm filing this claim, and all the evidence (I got managers and employees at the place to sign saying I worked at the place in June, to which she's saying I didn't) and the time records.
She also sent me a money order for the amount of that bad, single paycheck, and said something like the money is in escrow pending my dismissal of the claim. So I didn't cash it. The clerk at court said maybe I should tell them I didn't cash it, but I think it best I don't communicate at all with them, and just not cash it.
They also sent a letter to the court asking for dismissal of the case due to her being out of state and thus it needed to be filed with the secreteary of something... but I don't really know if she's out of the state, and the whole thing is she fled... so screw that. i'll argue in court against that if it comes up.
I'm thinking maybe I should contact like the IRS to see what they dislike her so much about, you know, so I can bring up in court to the judge that the defendant is someone who is shady as fuck and is on the lam. Because if they want to dismiss it based solely on her being in another state, I'd argue against that saying she's on the run and I have no idea if she's really out of the state.
Anyways... obnoxious what she's doing here.
I also got my W-2. I was wondering if like, I could 'read' it to see if the 2 disputed paychecks were accounted for in it. I know for sure she made those checks and like, paid out to social security and medicad and all that (there is no federal withholding on them though... whatever that means). So maybe I could get like, proof, that money was sent to social security and medicaid from the disputed paychecks, and maybe extrapolate what the paychecks were from the amount sent to taxes. Make sense?
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Honestly, on your w2 file for what you're missing, because technically if you were entitled to it, but didn't receive your w2 should reflect that, because in that sense you are owed.
THOUGH, and i will say this in general working for free is a bad rap, and with most institutions and places, i don't "start" working until i see paychecks, and if that is ever in question, working stops
Now, as far as previous owners holding up some type of crazy shenanigans; the new owners have no obligation to stand on your checks and own up to them unless they bought the original claims of the company. It has to be in the same name for legal reasons, for example if you bought Hewlett packard, you buy all their debts, as well. but if you basically just bought a building that was all of HP employees, there's no implication of their previous debt, you're buying people and the building.
Ignoring my poor example here, on your W2 when you file subtract the difference of those 3 unpaid checks assuming you get your totality in paperwork.
There's no reason you should be taxed for money you didn't get; in the case of an audit you have an upper hand.
With all the bad business practices happening the irs doesn't care about 900 dollars (typically)
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"She also sent me a money order for the amount of that bad, single paycheck, and said something like the money is in escrow pending my dismissal of the claim. So I didn't cash it. The clerk at court said maybe I should tell them I didn't cash it, but I think it best I don't communicate at all with them, and just not cash it. "
If the money is "tied up" she better find it anyway.
she is basically black mailing you and telling you lies to get you to to drop your claim.
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Yea...
So the case has been "Removed to General District Court", and even though I pleaded with the judge not to due that due to the character of the plaintiff, she was obligated to. The problem now, is that lawyers can argue in general court, whereas they can't in small claims.
So I sent all the 'evidence' I had, signed testimony, time records, the bad check, to the court and the lady I'm suing's lawyer, as part of the "Bill of Particulars" that I need to fill out. I think they're supposed to submit evidence too, but I havent' seen what they are up to.
I'm trying to talk to a lawyer.. haven't been called back yet...
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EPT
