Legal Question in Employment Law in California
unpaid contract payment
I was hired as a contractor through an agency in end of Feb. The client terminate my position after 2 weeks and promise to pay me at the end of March. On my contract, it said my agent will paid me within 15 days they got paid from the client. However, there is another agency between my agency and client which I didn't aware when I sign the contract and that agency has been sue by other companies now. My client said he has made the payment to that agency already, but my agency can't pay me because they can't get money from that agency. This has been 6 months already. Can I sue my agency for not paying me?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: unpaid contract payment
I see this from time to time, where the agency tries to justify not paying based on not getting paid from their customer. Unless your contract with them conditions payment on receipt of payment from their customer, this would not be a valid defense. But, it does not sound like you are an employee, so this is outside dept. labor jurisdiction. It is basically a contract dispute, and you may have to sue them. By waiting so long, you might have put yourself over the $5,000 small claims limit, so are now looking at having to retain a lawyer and file a regular lawsuit.
Re: unpaid contract payment
You are entitled to get paid for services rendered. Your agreement was between you and the agency you contracted with. The fact that they didn't get paid by another agency is their problem. They should sue the other agency for reimbursement.
Your most practical remedy is to file a small claims case, for up to $5,000. Any more than that would probably require the services of an attorney which will most likely reduce the amount you would hope to get for having to pay legal fees.
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