Question: What Would You Do?

Small Claims Court

From an avid reader of the blog.

I had to sue someone for $1200 once and the judge ruled in my favor. The defendant kept making promises to pay the judgement. But then he kept failing to send anything and ignored my calls.

I called his office — at that point he had no idea I knew where he worked. I was greeted with one of those call trees “press 1 for…”. There were no options that would take me to him. But one of the options was for Human Resources. I left a message with HR stating who I was and needed the defendant to call me (without telling any details of the lawsuit/judgement). The next day, I sent him a letter that included a 6 month payment plan (including statutory interest of 9%) and told him that as long as he made payments per this plan, I wouldn't pursue it further. However, the day after a missed payment, I would file the garnishment paperwork that I had already drawn up — the first payment listed was due 30 days later.

A week later, I received my first payment along with a letter agreeing to the payment plan. He followed through as promised.