What is the name of your state? California
Tomorrow my husband and I go to small claims court to appeal a judgement against us for $4000.
Here are the facts of our case:
Last April we entered into an agreement with a local advertiser to mail out coupon fliers for our home-based business. (turns out he has been twice convicted of fraud but, unfortunately, we did not know that at the time)
Our agreement was both verbal and written.
The verbal part was that this advertiser would distribute 180,000 coupons via u.s. mail over a three month period and that we would receive a response (telephone sales) of approximately 2%.
The written part of the contract ONLY stated the total number of coupons to be mailed and their mailing dates.
Unfortunately -we did not insist that this advertiser's verbal commitment of approximately 2% response be included in his standard contract form.
We had paid him $1600 initially - but we did not pay him the balance of the money because our response was pathetically low - we received approximately 20 calls in total.
He sued us for the balance owed (plus court costs) and the judge ruled in his favor - for $4000.
The judge stated that the verbal commitment was not valid - he stated that the written contract is the only thing that would be considered.
I always had heard that verbal promises (like the ones made by this advertiser) are just as valid.
Not only that - but after we refused to pay this man - he came several times to our home - pounding on the door - he sat out in front of our building (we live in a townhome) for two hours one day.
And - he left a threatening message on my husbands voicemail (which I taped on a recorder) saying that he would either "get his money or he would get a pound of flesh"
He was twice convicted of stealing people's credit cards from mailboxes and for all I know is still on probation.
There are also limitations on how many people he can sue in one year in small claims court. He has exceeded that limit - but the first judge didn't even want to hear about that. When I researched the records to see if he had sued other people I discovered that he has sued five other people this last year - which tells me that there are other people out there who have probably experienced the same rip-off.
I wish we had known this when we fell into his trap.
Does anybody have any suggestions for us? Are there any legal precedents for verbal contracts that I can show the judge we go before tomorrow?
Can I bring in this guy's criminal past, as I was thinking it would go to show that he is deceptive?
Sorry for the long post and Thank You in Advance for Your Responses!
Tomorrow my husband and I go to small claims court to appeal a judgement against us for $4000.
Here are the facts of our case:
Last April we entered into an agreement with a local advertiser to mail out coupon fliers for our home-based business. (turns out he has been twice convicted of fraud but, unfortunately, we did not know that at the time)
Our agreement was both verbal and written.
The verbal part was that this advertiser would distribute 180,000 coupons via u.s. mail over a three month period and that we would receive a response (telephone sales) of approximately 2%.
The written part of the contract ONLY stated the total number of coupons to be mailed and their mailing dates.
Unfortunately -we did not insist that this advertiser's verbal commitment of approximately 2% response be included in his standard contract form.
We had paid him $1600 initially - but we did not pay him the balance of the money because our response was pathetically low - we received approximately 20 calls in total.
He sued us for the balance owed (plus court costs) and the judge ruled in his favor - for $4000.
The judge stated that the verbal commitment was not valid - he stated that the written contract is the only thing that would be considered.
I always had heard that verbal promises (like the ones made by this advertiser) are just as valid.
Not only that - but after we refused to pay this man - he came several times to our home - pounding on the door - he sat out in front of our building (we live in a townhome) for two hours one day.
And - he left a threatening message on my husbands voicemail (which I taped on a recorder) saying that he would either "get his money or he would get a pound of flesh"
He was twice convicted of stealing people's credit cards from mailboxes and for all I know is still on probation.
There are also limitations on how many people he can sue in one year in small claims court. He has exceeded that limit - but the first judge didn't even want to hear about that. When I researched the records to see if he had sued other people I discovered that he has sued five other people this last year - which tells me that there are other people out there who have probably experienced the same rip-off.
I wish we had known this when we fell into his trap.
Does anybody have any suggestions for us? Are there any legal precedents for verbal contracts that I can show the judge we go before tomorrow?
Can I bring in this guy's criminal past, as I was thinking it would go to show that he is deceptive?
Sorry for the long post and Thank You in Advance for Your Responses!