Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California
the debtor is a freelancer from elance and we both are in california. and we went into arbirtration and i got the award for a full refund, all i need to do is just make it a judgment.
Can I sue someone for not paying their debt ? the debt was supposed to be payed on dec 2nd so now I have to hire a lawyer and incur more costs in order to get my original money. So can I sue him to pay for those costs ?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You can't sue someone for not paying an arbitration award. Arbitration is usually a replacement for a lawsuit. If it was binding arbitration, you can usually petition the court to enter the award as a judgment then enforce the judgment.
Once you have the judgment, you can collect 10% interest an certain expense to collect the judgment like court fees and sheriff's fees. Attorneys fees incurred to collect a judgment generally are not collectible unless the judgment itself also has legal fees as part of the award.
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