Legal Question in Business Law in Colorado

I was working for a company in Dallas, Tx. I received an email from her attorney terminating my contract work immediately. She owes me money but her attorney says since we had no signed contract that she doesn't have to pay me. They asked for all the materials, cell phone, laptop, etc. to be returned. I sent everything back except the laptop. There was a verbal agreement that it was given to me and no contract was signed. She bought the laptop in Dallas. I just received an email from the attorney stating that if I didn't send the laptop back by 1/5 that they would file a police report on stolen property. My questions are:

1) Does her payment record constitute anything where I can get my monies?

2) Do I have to send the laptop back legally?

3) What happens if they file the police report for stolen goods? Does it go on my record? Does someone come to my house to recover it? What happens?

4) Do I have any options in any of these areas?


Asked on 12/30/09, 2:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Robert Murillo Pivotal Legal Ltd.

Sorry for the problems. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that you did not have a written contract. Never--ever--do anything without a written contract. Then once you have a contract and prior to agreement, provide it to an attorney for review. If you don't do this you all but guarantee a pain that will likely cost much more than having an attorney advise you in the first place.

As to her claim that they do not have to pay you anything because there was no contract, that sounds dubious. You may have an oral agreement (what people incorrectly term a verbal agreement) regarding the scope of your work and the compensation. Even if you have no contract you may have claims for compensation based on quantum meruit which means that you may have a right for payment for the value of your services even without a contract.

As to the questions:

1. This may be some form of partial evidence, but ultimately it will be your word against hers.

2. That is up to you. If you don't they may file the report. If you had an oral agreement that the laptop was supposed to be yours and you can get some proof of this (emails, witnesses, so on), then you could just decide to wait for them to file a claim and then file suit.

3. If they file, the police will investigate. Given the circumstances they may very well tell them that this is a civil matter and they will need to file suit. It all depends.

4. Your best option is to contact an attorney to try to get them to negotiate this. You may have some leverage if you were in fact an employee rather than a contractor and some other strategies. Regardless, they may have no choice but to file a claim in Colorado which will be a pain for them.

In short, this is not something to do yourself as there are plenty of mistakes to be made. Retain an attorney. Good luck.

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Answered on 1/04/10, 3:00 pm


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