vegasdaemon
Junior Member
I'm being sued.
The plaintiff, who I will simply say is Chris, is suing me in small claims court for an amount of $5,000. The reason on this summons is "Repayment of debit", which I'm assuming he says I owe him money. I think it's best to explain the situation.
I used to work for Chris full-time as a phone support tech. He ran an ISP here in Nevada and I worked for him for about a year. After that, I left and started my own business doing web development freelance. I was doing okay, and moved into my own apartment. Well, a few clients left me, and I wanted some extra money. And Chris was having a good deal of problems in his business regarding his servers. So I worked for him remotely from my apartment part-time, while continuing to do my business.
Well, apparently his business was in need of radical change. He got to talking to me, and came over to my apartment with this idea. He said he'd like me to work for him again for full-time, salary, adequating to $12/hr, and work on migrating all his servers over to a different platform, answers phones, and pretty much help out with the business. He wanted me to move into his house so that I could work with him directly and not do everything remotely. Work more as a "team". I told him I still have my lease with my apartment complex, and he said don't worry about it, he'll take care of it. My assumption is he was going to write it off as a business expense. I would also be able to run my business from his house.
So he paid my early termination of lease, which was somewhere around 1,200 dollars I believe. And I moved into his house. No contract or lease agreement was written up. No formal rent arrangement was made. I'd pay him what I could, and when I couldn't, he said, don't worry about it.
My car was also having trouble with it's brakes and clutch. I was saving up money to fix it, so I was without wheels. He said this can't be the case, that he needed me to be mobile, and he paid for it. I assumed this also was written off as a business expense. He said don't worry about it.
His business situation was getting worse. Debt to service providers was growing. He was getting more erratic in behavior. He fired his accountant and decided to take it upon himself to do the finances. At that point, he started talking a lot about money problems and starting bringing up things of that I owed him money.
He was working hard on selling the house. It got to the point that he made the house into a "model" home, where my room was left to be just a bed and a tv. What work I did, I had to do in the garage. When the house was being shown, I was not allowed to be present on the property.
I finally found a house, and moved out. I tried working with him remotely doing phone support and remote management of the servers for a little while, but a dispute over a payperiod took place. I felt he was now trying to shave money off my paycheck. I quit at that point.
A few weeks later, he sent me email communication stating I owe him $5,000 dollars. I asked him for proof. He sent me a supposed list of things I owe him for. I immediately saw this list and felt it was wrong to be stating I owe him money for supposed business expenses. All of a sudden, I was held responsible for rent, and he even listed payment for replacement of the carpet, which he did to make the house more appealing for buyers. His justification was that I had a dog, but the man had two large dogs before my staying there which pretty much destroyed the carpet before I arrived.
After asking for proof through the mail, I waited. I received nothing for a few months. Nothing at all. Till last night. I opened the door and someone handed me a summons. I have to appear in court on Wednesday, January 5th, to argue my case that I don't owe him money.
If he wants to say I owe him money, I felt that I was justified in asking for legal binding papers which state that I do owe him money. I asked to receive it in the mail. I did not receive anything. It's not like I was hard to reach. He had my email addresses, my phone number which has not changed, and my new mailing address is available in plentiful places on the Internet.
However, on the summons, the address is listed as the address of when I lived with him. He *knows* I don't live there. Also, by policy of the small claims court, he's supposed to have sent a certified letter demanding payment, which I did not receive. He was supposed to provide receipt of this letter when filing, so I don't know if he falsified this receipt or not.
The summons was given to me yesterday, and my court date is the 5th. By policy, I'm supposed to receive the summons no later than 10 days prior to my court date. And a affidavit of service (stating that the summons was delivered) is supposed to be given to the court when it was delivered. Supposedly, this was *done*. And I just received it yesterday. This too, I'm not sure if he falsified.
No contracts written up stating any payment of any sort regarding rent, or early termination of my prior lease, or of any financial responsibilities to the house. I think that means a lot. I don't know if he'll try to falsify these types of documents. I know he's capable of trying something so stupid.
This is my first ever court appearance. There's no small claims lawyers in Las Vegas, as they cannot make money off these types of cases.
I need help. I've got two days to really write up my case, and find a way to properly defend myself.
I live in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The plaintiff, who I will simply say is Chris, is suing me in small claims court for an amount of $5,000. The reason on this summons is "Repayment of debit", which I'm assuming he says I owe him money. I think it's best to explain the situation.
I used to work for Chris full-time as a phone support tech. He ran an ISP here in Nevada and I worked for him for about a year. After that, I left and started my own business doing web development freelance. I was doing okay, and moved into my own apartment. Well, a few clients left me, and I wanted some extra money. And Chris was having a good deal of problems in his business regarding his servers. So I worked for him remotely from my apartment part-time, while continuing to do my business.
Well, apparently his business was in need of radical change. He got to talking to me, and came over to my apartment with this idea. He said he'd like me to work for him again for full-time, salary, adequating to $12/hr, and work on migrating all his servers over to a different platform, answers phones, and pretty much help out with the business. He wanted me to move into his house so that I could work with him directly and not do everything remotely. Work more as a "team". I told him I still have my lease with my apartment complex, and he said don't worry about it, he'll take care of it. My assumption is he was going to write it off as a business expense. I would also be able to run my business from his house.
So he paid my early termination of lease, which was somewhere around 1,200 dollars I believe. And I moved into his house. No contract or lease agreement was written up. No formal rent arrangement was made. I'd pay him what I could, and when I couldn't, he said, don't worry about it.
My car was also having trouble with it's brakes and clutch. I was saving up money to fix it, so I was without wheels. He said this can't be the case, that he needed me to be mobile, and he paid for it. I assumed this also was written off as a business expense. He said don't worry about it.
His business situation was getting worse. Debt to service providers was growing. He was getting more erratic in behavior. He fired his accountant and decided to take it upon himself to do the finances. At that point, he started talking a lot about money problems and starting bringing up things of that I owed him money.
He was working hard on selling the house. It got to the point that he made the house into a "model" home, where my room was left to be just a bed and a tv. What work I did, I had to do in the garage. When the house was being shown, I was not allowed to be present on the property.
I finally found a house, and moved out. I tried working with him remotely doing phone support and remote management of the servers for a little while, but a dispute over a payperiod took place. I felt he was now trying to shave money off my paycheck. I quit at that point.
A few weeks later, he sent me email communication stating I owe him $5,000 dollars. I asked him for proof. He sent me a supposed list of things I owe him for. I immediately saw this list and felt it was wrong to be stating I owe him money for supposed business expenses. All of a sudden, I was held responsible for rent, and he even listed payment for replacement of the carpet, which he did to make the house more appealing for buyers. His justification was that I had a dog, but the man had two large dogs before my staying there which pretty much destroyed the carpet before I arrived.
After asking for proof through the mail, I waited. I received nothing for a few months. Nothing at all. Till last night. I opened the door and someone handed me a summons. I have to appear in court on Wednesday, January 5th, to argue my case that I don't owe him money.
If he wants to say I owe him money, I felt that I was justified in asking for legal binding papers which state that I do owe him money. I asked to receive it in the mail. I did not receive anything. It's not like I was hard to reach. He had my email addresses, my phone number which has not changed, and my new mailing address is available in plentiful places on the Internet.
However, on the summons, the address is listed as the address of when I lived with him. He *knows* I don't live there. Also, by policy of the small claims court, he's supposed to have sent a certified letter demanding payment, which I did not receive. He was supposed to provide receipt of this letter when filing, so I don't know if he falsified this receipt or not.
The summons was given to me yesterday, and my court date is the 5th. By policy, I'm supposed to receive the summons no later than 10 days prior to my court date. And a affidavit of service (stating that the summons was delivered) is supposed to be given to the court when it was delivered. Supposedly, this was *done*. And I just received it yesterday. This too, I'm not sure if he falsified.
No contracts written up stating any payment of any sort regarding rent, or early termination of my prior lease, or of any financial responsibilities to the house. I think that means a lot. I don't know if he'll try to falsify these types of documents. I know he's capable of trying something so stupid.
This is my first ever court appearance. There's no small claims lawyers in Las Vegas, as they cannot make money off these types of cases.
I need help. I've got two days to really write up my case, and find a way to properly defend myself.
I live in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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