Won Case, Defendant stopped paying and disappear, Court told me they can't help?

[boater83]

This marine mechanic ripped me off. To sum it up, we went to court, and I won the case. He was ordered to pay 1300 back to me. We went back and forth after he failed to make payments. He finally sent two small payments and stopped. I filed citation contempt with court, and court sent me paper work to send to sheriff to serve. Problem is he no longer lives at the address, and disconnected his phone #. Sheriff told me they can't do anything. I called Court, and they said they can't do anything either! I will need to find a way to get his new address they said. This is rhode island small claim. They are really messed up for doing this to the plaintiff.

Any suggestions on how I can proceed from here? I tried looking him up in the phone book , etc, nothing helps. I'm at a loss on how they can do this to me. Thanks.

 

[justalayman]

boater83;3090384]

Any suggestions on how I can proceed from here?

keep looking

I'm at a loss on how they can do this to me.

how who can do what to you? You have a civil judgment for money. It is up to you to take action to enforce your judgment. The state doesn't do it for you.

 

[boater83]

What actions can I take? Please give advice

 

[sandyclaus]

This marine mechanic ripped me off. To sum it up, we went to court, and I won the case. He was ordered to pay 1300 back to me. We went back and forth after he failed to make payments. He finally sent two small payments and stopped. I filed citation contempt with court, and court sent me paper work to send to sheriff to serve. Problem is he no longer lives at the address, and disconnected his phone #. Sheriff told me they can't do anything. I called Court, and they said they can't do anything either! I will need to find a way to get his new address they said. This is rhode island small claim. They are really messed up for doing this to the plaintiff.

Any suggestions on how I can proceed from here? I tried looking him up in the phone book , etc, nothing helps. I'm at a loss on how they can do this to me. Thanks.

You're finding out the hard way why it can be easy to win a judgment in court, but infinitely more difficult to actually COLLECT the money you were awarded. While the court can order a payment, it's still up to you, the judgment creditor, to actually collect the money.

The sheriff can only serve the papers to the judgment debtor, but in order to do that, they need to have a valid address at which to find them.

If they moved, then you might be able to send a letter to them with an address service endorsement to get any forwarding address that he may have filed with the post office (http://pe.usps.com/text/qsg300/Q507.htm - Return Service Requested is the option where if the mail is undeliverable at the address you provide, they will return the mail to you with a forwarding address as provided to the USPS, or a reason why the item is undeliverable otherwise).

You can serve them at their usual place of business. Do they have a work address where the work on your boat was completed? Do they still work there? If not, does the office management have the name and/or address of their current place of employment?

Bottom line, you are going to need to do some detective work to find the guy before you can proceed with finding them in contempt or taking any further collection actions on your own. You might need to consider hiring a collection agency to do the collection for you - which can be effective, since they know all the tricks, but it can be expensive and might not be worth the cost vs. the actual amount they can collect from the debtor.

 

[ecmst12]

Hire a private detective. You could try selling the debt to a collection agency but with such a small amount, it's probably not worth it.

 

[boater83]

Hire a private detective. You could try selling the debt to a collection agency but with such a small amount, it's probably not worth it.

He no longer owns the boat shop. He does mobile repair through a mobile # that was disconnected. I am thinking of calling up a small claim lawyer to see if I can work with him. The amount is so small, but he ripped me and I'd be much happier getting that money even if I have to go through all this hassle. I did a search on him and it shows he can some history with the laws ( felony, etc.) Wish I found this before I started work with him. Thanks for all the replies so far.

 

[Zigner]

I am thinking of calling up a small claim lawyer to see if I can work with him.

There is no need to contact an attorney - you've already won the case. At this point, you will need to collect. As mentioned above, that can prove to be much more difficult than winning the case.

 

[BL]

There are people find search sites on the Internet .You might get lucky.

In the end if you can not find him you may have to file a Certificate of Judgment with the county clerks .

If he is or tries to do business again it will show everywhere .

He just might be inclined to satisfy the judgment then.

If he does make sure you file a satisfaction of judgment with the clerks .

 

[dcatz]

You’ve already been told “now you’re learning blah, blah, blah” which is said in response to every such post (meaning thousands of times on FA) and isn’t really a useful “learning experience” at all, yet will invariably be said by somebody. However, sandyclaus has gotten you on the right track by suggesting one actually useful way to skip trace and by implying the lesson that all similarly situated should learn: don’t sue first and then expect to enforce a judgment; develop your enforcement plan and then sue.

Expect to get your judgment and don’t expect your judgment debtor to cooperate. If you’re wrong, you’re happily surprised. If you’re right, it’s less likely that you’re frustrated, disappointed and writing things like this.

The amount is too small for an attorney or agency to give it attention but, within statutory limits, post-judgment recovery costs are recoverable. Resources to skip-trace are much, much greater than they once were, but the average person doesn’t know what attorneys and agencies use or how to access them themselves.

Use Google to find public record providers (since I don’t imagine that you subscribe to any yourself). There will be a nominal fee for the best, but it will be much small then you’d pay to a 3rd party, If this is your first time doing this, a place to start is http://www.journaliststoolbox.org/archive/public-records/ . Useful sites are listed, but none can be endorsed on FA, and you’ll have to separate the wheat from the chaff. It’s also time to use your imagination.

In addition to sending a certified demand letter, forwarding address requested,
Did you make any payments that were negotiated and have checks with his bank endorsement on the back?
Does he have a registered fictitious business name? It’s associated with an address.
Is he required to have a tax license registered with the city/county?
Is he required to have a professional license, like an auto mechanic might have?
Do you know if he’s in a union?
Did he work for a person or entity required to send him a W-2 or W-9?
If he sold the business, is the new owner still making payments?
If he sold the business, does the new owner know his whereabouts? Is there a non-compete?
Is there useful skip-tracing information on his old business lease and/or his old residential lease?
Is he/was he married and can a spouse be located by name?
Is there anything in his criminal record that would help you to find him? Was it recent and is he on parole?
Who were suppliers and are they still?
Did he learn his craft in the service and is he in a reserve unit?
Is he/was he involved in any other court cases? Current status?
Residence or business neighbors know anything about current whereabouts?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Have you tried obvious sources like asking for new telephone listings in the city or checking Google. (I once won a bet by tracking somebody from the West Coast to a home telephone number in N.Y. starting with only his company name and using only Google and Linkedin.) Tried Facebook?

If you don’t find anything immediately, try public records again in 6 months. It can take time for data to catch-up or be renewed.