What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
I responded to an ad placed on Craigslist by an attorney looking for a legal secretary/paralegal to assist with pleadings/discovery. He asked for a minimum commitment of 15 hours per week, and the rate he offered in the ad was $25/hour.
When he contacted me back, he said due to the volume of responses he received, the pay rate would now be $12-15/hour. I told him I would be open to that if he was really offering 15 hours per week. He said that he had several candidates, and was going to send out "test" assignments to five of us, and based on the results, would probably offer work to more than one person.
He sent me 27 discovery documents and asked me to proofread, create proofs of service for each, and serve them. I have a home office which includes a printer, but to print all of the documents meant printing 800+ pages. I made the revisions to all of the documents and had them in final. When I told him I didn't feel comfortable incurring the cost of that large of a print job (paper and ink), especially considering I hadn't actually been hired yet and had never worked with him before, he said that he had plenty of other people who were willing to front the cost. My instincts and impression of him told me not to do it, so I told him thanks but no thanks, and that I would just send him the finalized documents for him to give to someone else and serve.
I invoiced him for 3 hours. If you do the math on that, it equals a little over 6minutes spent on each document, which is less than it actually took me. I didn't hear back from him, so I followed up. He told me that he would pay me $15 for the entire job, nothing more. He then told me that someone else had to do the whole thing over. When I asked him to elaborate, he couldn't. I told him I could send him redline versions of every document to prove what work I did. He again said he would give me $15, nothing more.
I spoke to another attorney whom I work with, and he told me that he has never had to have my work even close to redone, and that he actually sends me other people's work for a "makeover."
My husband called this guy for me today and told him he can pay me what is fair, or I can take him to small claims. I was present for the entire call. After they hung up, he emailed me and said my husband threatened him and he notified the police. He then sent me a name and number to call regarding the "threat"...it turned out to be a private investigation firm, not the police, and they knew nothing about this.
I have his original Craigslist ad, all of our emails, the assignment he sent me, and proof of the work I did. I want to take him to small claims out of principle. We don't have a contract, and we never lined-out exactly how many hours I would spend. Do I have enough?
I responded to an ad placed on Craigslist by an attorney looking for a legal secretary/paralegal to assist with pleadings/discovery. He asked for a minimum commitment of 15 hours per week, and the rate he offered in the ad was $25/hour.
When he contacted me back, he said due to the volume of responses he received, the pay rate would now be $12-15/hour. I told him I would be open to that if he was really offering 15 hours per week. He said that he had several candidates, and was going to send out "test" assignments to five of us, and based on the results, would probably offer work to more than one person.
He sent me 27 discovery documents and asked me to proofread, create proofs of service for each, and serve them. I have a home office which includes a printer, but to print all of the documents meant printing 800+ pages. I made the revisions to all of the documents and had them in final. When I told him I didn't feel comfortable incurring the cost of that large of a print job (paper and ink), especially considering I hadn't actually been hired yet and had never worked with him before, he said that he had plenty of other people who were willing to front the cost. My instincts and impression of him told me not to do it, so I told him thanks but no thanks, and that I would just send him the finalized documents for him to give to someone else and serve.
I invoiced him for 3 hours. If you do the math on that, it equals a little over 6minutes spent on each document, which is less than it actually took me. I didn't hear back from him, so I followed up. He told me that he would pay me $15 for the entire job, nothing more. He then told me that someone else had to do the whole thing over. When I asked him to elaborate, he couldn't. I told him I could send him redline versions of every document to prove what work I did. He again said he would give me $15, nothing more.
I spoke to another attorney whom I work with, and he told me that he has never had to have my work even close to redone, and that he actually sends me other people's work for a "makeover."
My husband called this guy for me today and told him he can pay me what is fair, or I can take him to small claims. I was present for the entire call. After they hung up, he emailed me and said my husband threatened him and he notified the police. He then sent me a name and number to call regarding the "threat"...it turned out to be a private investigation firm, not the police, and they knew nothing about this.
I have his original Craigslist ad, all of our emails, the assignment he sent me, and proof of the work I did. I want to take him to small claims out of principle. We don't have a contract, and we never lined-out exactly how many hours I would spend. Do I have enough?