Susan, Collecting a small claims judgment is not difficult, but it is a little time consuming. You do not need an attorney and in most states only a corp. can be represented by one. If you win they will have to pay all court costs, collection expenses, including Marshal/Sheriff fees, piano movers, sale/auction costs. You will only be able to keep your owed fees plus collection/court costs (not time invested). Most states have a legal aid office that will walk you through this. Get the book Winning in Small Claims Court . #1 Send a registered letter to your customer . State that you are pursuing the matter to the fullest extent allowed by law and when awarded judgment they will be liable for all court, collection costs and interest. State that you are sorry the situation has come to this, but they have left you no other options to collect funds owed to you for the work performed (describe the work), a default payment is public record and reported to all credit agencies. Keep it simple. Do not include any embellishments, threats, etc., it could sink your case. Follow with a phone call the evening of, or day after the letter has arrived (usually 2 days). Be pleasant, do not argue or threaten them. Explain that you disagree and will let the court decide. You do not want make this personal (even though it is!). You want them pay out of logic or convenience not fight it for personal reasons. #2 Wait 2 more days then file the case. The judge will want to know that you took reasonable attempts to collect . (Check your State's Mechanic's Lien Laws and file a Lien on the piano. If you have the serial number of the piano, that helps but is not a deal breaker. Mechanic's Liens, in most states have a lot of teeth. In some states, if you win, the piano will be yours!) #3. After the judgment has been awarded immediately contact the defendant. If they don't pay, immediately contact the court and start collection. Arrange for the Marshal/Sheriff to go to the home and collect the piano, sell/auction it, take out your expenses, the remainder (if any) goes to the defendant. This could take 6 to 9 months, less or more depending on your state. Usually they will pay after the initial letter or right before the court date. My one case that went to collection paid the day before the marshal was scheduled to arrive. I am not an attorney, but I have won cases with Walt Disney Corp. and a $32K personal injury case after firing 3 law firms that wanted me to settle for $7.5k (and no 33% contingency fees!). I have never lost a small claims case (6). Before you go to trial, contact me directly. Being prepared is a key to success. (like working on pianos) Think it through. It may not be worth it to you. (also like working on pianos) Michael Riffle Piano Technician Frazier Hall Room 93B University of Northern Colorado Greeley, CO 80639 michael.riffle at unco.edu office (970) 351-1132 cell (970) 584-TUNE (8863) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090404/3faed6c8/attachment.html>
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