Did some Consulting Work, Now Told I am trying to collect on Fraudulent Invoices????

What is the name of your state? NC
This may be a little long, but trying to get the basics across.

Started work for a company on Dec 1(1 owner, Inc.) along with another person. Both of us have Masters Degrees in business. Started work with a Consultancy firm. We submit invoices and a billable hours summary and president pays us.

Other worker left after 3 weeks as president would question every hour on invoice saying he put down 3 hours, it should have only taken him 1 hr.

So, in Jan. my wife had surgery and the president was not in the office when I tried to turn in my invoices, so I turned 3 invoices in for 6 weeks of work on Feb. 6. She paid weeks 5 and 6 ($414) on Feb. 13, paid weeks 1 and 2 ($306) on Feb. 20. I am trying to collect on weeks 3 and 4 for $684.

She said on Feb. 20 she had no record of the invoice (we feel she lost it on purpose and figured I didn't have copies, so she didn't have to pay). I gave her the copy of the invoice and she questioned everything I did on it.

Invoice was for a complete business plan and a complete redesign of a website for a national account she had just received.

I received a letter today stating that my invoices significantly overstate the time required and assigend to complete the tasks. She is trying to say that she didn't ask for me to do the site redesign (she did and is lying) and other misc. items that she didn't ask me to do.

She is saying that it is fraudulent and could be considered larceny. Not very worried about this as I have records of all work done, but no signed contract to do the work.

It's her word against mine really, but she has done this with the guy who worked there when I started, and from what I understand is in a legal battle with someone who worked there before us.

I am getting a lawyer, but just wanted to get some preliminary info now.

Sorry for the length.

If you don't have a contract good luck getting an attorney. Unless you're prepared to spend $1,000s to gain $800

I have a friend who may do it pro bono.

Other than that, what about small claims court?

Or prepaid legal? Is that worth it?

Pfaffing85690 said:

If you don't have a contract good luck getting an attorney. Unless you're prepared to spend $1,000s to gain $800

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Sounds like they had an express (stated) as well as an implied (work had commenced, he had invoices) contract, so by all means, he should pursue this.

My reccomendation is for small claims. If they push it on to the general civil calendar you might want to retain the services of an attorney.

Start with a letter that begins "demand is hereby made..." and then state the dollar amount. This sometimes gets people to cut the crap.

JTS

And what were the terms of this Implied contract?

Prove it.

Pfaffing85690 said:

And what were the terms of this Implied contract?

Prove it.

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True enough, burden of proof is on the plaintiff. I see plenty of potential documents and web page content that can be arranged and sent off with a list of questions to the defendant for admissions.
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Before any of that, I'm reccomending that you go through the motions of trying to collect. Issue a demand letter and (if neccesary) a final notice before considering legal action.

JTS

As for implied contract, I did speak to someone and they said since she paid the first and last checks, and not the middle, that it implies that I was working with her, doing business with her.

Does that fact that she has done this to two other people, one who will provide a sworn statement to the fact help at all? Will I need to prove that there was the contract, or that I am not lying and she is?

As for implied contract, I did speak to someone and they said since she paid the first and last checks, and not the middle, that it implies that I was working with her, doing business with her.

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Really? Prove it.

Does that fact that she has done this to two other people, one who will provide a sworn statement to the fact help at all?

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That's for the judge to decide.

Will I need to prove that there was the contract, or that I am not lying and she is?

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Yes, Yes and Yes.

So you are saying it will be hard for me to win? 50/50?

As for the $684, if I ended up not winning the case and he sided with her, is it possible for criminal charges to be brought up for larceny and overbilling (I didn't do either)? And if so, would it be thrown out as I have NEVER had any problems with the law or any trouble at all. I'm 28.

Not sure if emails are admissible, but on Jan 15, I emailed her that I had hand coded the website, worked for a long time on it. After that, I met with her, Jan 16 and she looked over the site and said it looked great.

On Jan 22, she sent me an email with the upload information for the website (which was incorrect-I printed screen shots of all errors I received), and also saying that information for the other states would follow in an email.

I was contracted to do a site for NC, which could then be used as a template for all other states, but I would still edit the flash and edit the logos, etc.

Do these emails do anything to show that I was working for her, I emailed information about the site I was doing, she never said to stop doing the work, never said that she didn't want a brand new site, and even sent me the upload info AFTER she saw the updated site, along with a statement to send info for the other states so I could upload their sites (she sent emails on two occasions saying she would send the upload information for other states).

Not sure if this helps to prove anything, but all the emails can probably be traced by dates, etc.

Listen, I said to prove it. You don't have to prove it to me or to an attorney. But you DO have to prove it to a judge.

The only advice I can give you at this point, since you continue to bring in new facts, is to consult with an attorney (most have a small fee or free initial consultation) and see if you indeed might have a small claims case.

As for any criminal charges, I doubt seriously if she has anything to base such crap on. But then, I don't know what you'll come back with since you insist on adding facts after your initial post.

The last time I posted here about 6 months ago for a friend, I put down all the facts and got yelled at for posting too much information. So this time I tried to be brief and not put in everything.

As for the overbilling, her claim is that it only took me 6.25 hours to do a website for her in December, which is true, however it was agreed that I would use a template for the site (I can prove where I got the template) as she was behind on designing the site for the guy by about 2 months. She needed it quick, I said i don't usually design from a template, but could since she needed it fast.

So for the other site (as I usually do) I handcoded it and she never said anything about it. It was a much larger project, and took 32 hours, not a template, hand coded, with flash, 4 subdomains and redesign of flash and logos for about 12 other states, then inserting logos, etc. So it took longer, obviously.

That is going to be her arguement, that it shouldn't have taken me that long because of the other site, when in fact, it is like comparing apples to oranges.

By the way, I have an appointment with a lawyer tomorrow.

If anything, I find the additional information useful.

Bring these e-mails and whatever else that constitutes potential evidence to an attorney.

An initial consultation through bar-refferral costs $35 in your state, and is worth every penny.

The attorney will most likely reccomend small claims, and they can show you how to handle the discovery process on your own

JTS

Or prepaid legal? Is that worth it? [/B]

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I skimmed the othre responses and didn't se an anser to this so I thought I'd chime in.

If you do not already have a pre-paid legal plan, getting one will not cover you for this as it is a pre-existing problem. Do not bother going this route for this issue.