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Being sued in small claims court....

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djbaker1969

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? New Jersey

I am being sued by someone who I did taxes for many years ago, I had moved and did not inform him in a timely fashion which made him extremely angry. He has been harassing me for three years now - sending threatening letters to me, contacting my employer, complaining to every agency imaginable. He is now taking me to small claims court for $1,000 - which is a bogus amount. I had reported him to the police - who had warned him to stop, but he hasnt. I am worried this will never end and he will succeed at getting me fired - he is a sick individual with too much time on his hands.
1) Should I get an attorney (and what kind? - cant seem to find any on the net that seem applicable)?

2) Should I countersue - for emotional pain, slander, libel...?

3) Is a harrasment restraining order applicable here (I live in Union County NJ)?

Thanks very much for any input you may lend.
 


BL

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? New Jersey

I am being sued by someone who I did taxes for many years ago, I had moved and did not inform him in a timely fashion which made him extremely angry. He has been harassing me for three years now - sending threatening letters to me, contacting my employer, complaining to every agency imaginable. He is now taking me to small claims court for $1,000 - which is a bogus amount. I had reported him to the police - who had warned him to stop, but he hasnt. I am worried this will never end and he will succeed at getting me fired - he is a sick individual with too much time on his hands.
1) Should I get an attorney (and what kind? - cant seem to find any on the net that seem applicable)?
2) Should I countersue - for emotional pain, slander, libel...?

3) Is a harrasment restraining order applicable here (I live in Union County NJ)?

Thanks very much for any input you may lend.
Scroll to the right of the page and post your case to an Attorney to review .
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I am confused. Someone has been trying to collect money from you that they feel is owed to them. They have now been forced to sue you to collect the money.
Where is the harassment? What you can do is present a valid defense in court and have the court decide the matter.
 

djbaker1969

Junior Member
Please allow me to expand a bit....

For three years this person has been sending me threatening hate mail with use of vulgarity and threats of harm to myself and my family. He contacted every agency imaginable to try to get me in trouble - to which I have successfully defended myself. He is sending negative propaganda to my employer - which I fear will eventually take its toll on my career.

All of this in response to the fact that I moved in November 2005 and as of March 1, 2006 had yet to inform him. I did call him at that time, but he had already decided I had tried to "run away" from him on purpose. I had purchased a home that turned into a real life "money pit" which drove me into a nervous breakdown. Due to severe depression I became out of touch for those months. He had sent me letters I did not receive as the post office erred and did not forward my mail (I have a letter from my former town's postmaster apologizing to me) - rather than contacting me - the person I sold my old home to kept some and threw out the rest of mail - I did not discover this until early March. The fact is this man did not believe anything I had to say, I said to him, if you dont believe me, fine, then I dont believe we should work together. He demanded I prepare his taxes or else I will be sorry, I hung up on him.

Back in 2003 he wanted to scam the Dept of Unemployment out of some $$$, I refused to be involved. So he prepared the payroll records by himself and made some errors. About $700 of which was due to the fact he neglected to pay both the employer and employee share of FICA - the rest was interest and penalties. He expects me to pay it for him. Additionally I always charged him a very low rate to do his tax work (1040 with Scheds A,B,C,D, E and Form 5500 as well as an investment analysis) all for $175 being I was doing this on the side and shouldnt be charging what a CPA firm would charge. He then had to get a CPA firm to do his taxes and paid $350 - he expects me to make up the difference. Finally, I used to prepare an annual report of his stock basis for his very large stock portfolio - due to splits, divestitures, investments and sales it was quite cumbersome. As a courtesy, I would look up the market values of the stocks published on Yahoo on the day I prepared the analyses. On two years I misquoted the prices - he wants what he paid me for those analyses refunded ($25 +$25).

All of his violent and despicable behavior was uncalled for and someone who I have had a 4 year working relationship with and had always been welcome in my home should have given me the benefit of the doubt and had concern for me rather than assume I was running and hiding. What on earth was I running and hiding from - an annual tax preparation fee that I looked forward to every year?

Unfortunately I did not know that deep inside this man despised me and was waiting for an opportunity to pounce - that he did. Why he has such contempt for me - possible prejudice? I dont know. My opinion, however is you cannot sue and harass someone just because you do not like them...period.

Thanks
 

BL

Senior Member
Were you contracted to prepare this persons taxes for the next year ?

If so , why isn't it fair to pay the difference from what you charge , and the other Agency's fees .

How can you claim he prepared his taxes wrong , yet you claim another agency did them ?

If you had no contract , you're not liable .

Why wasn't this person charged with harassment and given a R/O , instead of a warning by the police ?

Over to the right of the page , post your case to an attorney to review .
 

djbaker1969

Junior Member
I was not contracted to prepare his

taxes, we went year to year, but I absolutely did not have a retainer and was not legally obligated in any way to prepare his retrun. If he wasnt so verbally abusive to me and not so insistent that I was lying about what happened to my family, naturally I would have been more than happy to prepare his taxes.

I do not "claim" he prepared his taxes (payroll) - he did prepare his taxes incorrectly - I know this because he came to me for help once he received deficiency notices from the various taxing authorities. I did not "claim" another agency did them as I stated he did them himself!

The man was 79 at the time, therefore the Detective on the case urged me not to press charges and insured me I would not hear from this man again.
 

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