In '99 I sold my internet business (I was an ISP). The guy paid me for about 4.5 years (8 year promissory note) and folded. I sold the business to a guy who worked for him (he also had another internet company) with a 3 year loan. He paid me about $7000 total (out of $50K he owed me) and stopped. I filed a small claims case against him and the judge threw it out because "I" sued him and not my business. I refiled and he requested a jury trial. I took him and his company to court and the jury was given a form for each defendant. They found in my favor on both of the forms for $7350. I'm not exactly sure if that means I "won" $14K or not. In any event, I probably won't get any more money but it was still nice to win. I have been going after him for two years and it is party time tonight. I did find out that I really really suck at being an attorney. I am surprised that I won because I made a ton of mistakes (didn't even get the promissory note in as evidence <G>). I did have him read a certain section of it while he was on the stand and that was the only thing that saved my ***.

FWIW, before you ask, I talked to several attorneys and they all wanted a minimum of $5K up front before even taking the case. I did the small claims thing hoping to win $7500 (max in SC) for the Jan-Jun 2005 payments (just an example) and then sue him again for the July-Dec payments, etc until I had all my money back. I know the court will get tired of this (seems reasonable to me) but I can file for $80 a clip instead of getting a lawyer at $8K and suing for the entire amount (which I will never get).

After it was all said and done, I bought a power ball ticket (first one I have ever purchased). I figure my luck is running strong right now...

 

Congrats! And good luck!

 

good luck on power ball

 

That's awesome.

Do they let you have fun during Jury Selection?

"If you were on a deserted island, what three people would you pick and why?"

Chris

 

gj man

 

14k? LSx Miata time!

 

Cool! Now send a little luck my way for the claim i'm making against Illinois DOT.

 

Nope, no fun during jury selection. I'm still trying to figure out why the lawyer struck the ones that he did. Jury ended up being 4 women and 2 men. 3 black and 3 white. The 3 that I struck were unemployed and unmarried (didn't want any potential bums that thought something was owed to them and didn't understand that your signature means that you had a duty to pay someone back).

$14K would be nice but I will never see a dime of it (especially from his LLC). The best I can hope for is getting my name put on the as a lien against his house.