Legal Question in Employment Law in California

I have a labor board complaint filed against my former employer and the mediation is scheduled for January 25th. However I sincerely doubt that he will show up for the meeting. He has not provided my w-2 form to me and when I filed for unemployment there was no record that I had ever worked for him (they asked if I was a 1099 even though he deducted taxes from my paycheck). If he doesnt show for the meeting and I file a small claims case against him, if he refuses to show for the small claims case, is he in violation of the law since he was served papers? Is there another way to go about obtaining my money? He lives in Denver (even though the franchise of his company that I worked for was in San Diego California). He sent me an email telling me that if I continued to call or email requesting my money he would file a harassment claim against me. Other than hiring an attorney (because I cannot talked to several lawyers who file cases on a contingency fee who said that my case would not result in enough money for them and I do not want to search for one anymore), are there any other ways that I can obtain my money from him? Even if I win a judgement against him, I do not know how to collect my money from him and he is going to fight this for as long as he can. It is likely that he will have to be forced to pay the money that he owes me.


Asked on 1/12/11, 12:54 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Kirschbaum Law Offices of Michael R. Kirschbaum

If your ex-employer lives in a different state and has no property in California you can attach, you will have difficulty getting paid even with a judgment. A judgment is nothing more than a piece of paper saying this person owes you money, plus interest. You will have to find a way to collect on it. But it can be done. You can file the judgment in the jurisdiction where the person lives. Once filed, you can attempt to execute on it just as you would locally. But you need to know what you are doing or hire someone who does, which means spending money to try to collect money. In this case, you will probably have to hire an attorney in Denver experienced in debt collection. If the amount owed you is too small to be worth hiring such an attorney and going through all the hassle, you will have to reevaluate.

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Answered on 1/17/11, 2:09 pm


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