Legal Question in Business Law in Arizona

I own a Go-Go Dancing Company, in which I set up events at bars and Nightclubs and have my girls dance and host events...

I entered into an 8 week signed contract with a Nightclub. the details of the contract were as follows: It was for every friday Night for 8 weeks... 2 girls were to dance each friday night for 3 hours at a rate of $90.00 per girl... The rest of my girls were to host the Night, and the pay was as followed: 10% cut of the total bar sales as long as it hit $5,000.00, and $3.00 per person on the guestlist of each of my girls that come thru the door.

4 days before our first event I received an email from the General Manager(Who signed the contract) Stating that he had been let go and the contract would no longer be honored. I was pretty upset, so I contacted the owner of the Venue. After speaking with him, letting him know the arrangements, and sending him a copy of the document he agreed to meet with me to see what we could work out.

2 weeks after the contract was to go into effect The owner finally meets with me. He tells me he doesn't like the contract, and won't honor it because their establishment easily makes over $7,000 in sales a night, and he doesn't want to pay my company for nothing. He also stated he doesn't know my company or has never heard of them so he isn't comfortable with the contract.

Of course this upset me. I have worked in the Nightlife industry for many years, and I feel I know it pretty well... The GM at the time signed the contract well before he got let go, so I believe the contract should still be valid. Even if the owner doesn't like the terms it was a valid contract at the time...

So close to 5 weeks later I wrote the owner an email stating my displeasure. I also mapped out a settlement agreement that I thought was more than fair considering the circumstances. basically my settlement was such:

instead of the full 8 weeks I made a settlement at 4 weeks... so with 2 dancers dancing a night for 4 weeks it came out to $700.00

On an estimate I know with all the girls I have who would be hosting the night could have easily brought an extra 100-150 people a night... but to be fair I estimated it severely low at 50 people a Night....At $3.00 a piece it would be $150.00 a Night times 4 weeks would be $600.00. Finally the bar sales... Now since he already admitted to making $7,000 a night if not more I knew we would have easily hit the $5,000 a night stipulation... But to be fair I met in the middle and took $6,000 in sales at 10% would be $600 a Night times 4 weeks would be $2400

The total of all of this would be $3700.00 Now I know this seems like alot, but I am only accounting for half of the actual set contract. So after I send this off, he has his companies Attorney contact me. Of course the attorney starts sending me pressure emails, basically getting me to stop pursuing this...

So my question is Do I have a case? Is the attorney pressuring me because he knows his client would be forced to pay? Is there anything I can do without going to court? I really don't have the funds to hire an Attorney if we did go to court, and I would be afraid they would somehow screw me over with the legal jargin if I represented myself. What can I do?


Asked on 3/24/10, 12:25 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Donald Scher Donald T. Scher & Associates, P.C.

You can go to Small Claims Court, where you do not need an attorney and plead your case for the cost of the filing fee and service of process. Here you can tell your story in your own words.

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Answered on 3/29/10, 8:40 am


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