Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Can a person be arrested for stopping payment on a check? The issue is regarding some minor handyman work that was done in my home. The stopped payment was due to a disagreement over a greatly underestimated time estimate (instead of the 2 hours I was told the work would require, it took almost 8 hours over the course of 2 days), the quality of work and some resulting property damage. I spoke with the worker about my concerns with how long he was taking while he was doing the work, but I gave the check to him anyway. I looked at the work more closely the next day when it was light out and I could see better, and I realized that there were some bigger problems and I called the company and spoke with the owner. After a phone conversation and some email correspondence, the owner told me that he would give me a nominal refund or send the worker back to fix what was fixable (and basically I would be out of luck for the item that isn't fixable). When it was clear that we were not going to agree on a resolution, I stopped the check. The owner has now threatened to call the police and have me arrested for theft of services. Can he do that?


Asked on 12/15/14, 6:07 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Arkady Bukh Bukh Law Firm, P.C.

No, the police would not pursue this. It is more of a civil contract issue, where they breached the contract by not completing the work correctlly and you breached by not paying them. This would likely be settled in a small claims court.

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Answered on 12/17/14, 11:19 am


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