suddenly a good customer writes big, bad checks

I filed a small claims case. I want to be as prepared as possible when I present my case. Let me give a little back ground.

I do adult phone talk. I accept checks by phone. One of my best customers has written $3248.28 in "good" checks since 1998 to me. I have all these check stubs to show as evidence as I feel they prove this customer's repeated overall satisfaction with my service.

On 8/10, he used my service for 66 minutes, 8/12 for 58 minutes, on 8/13 and 8/14 he did 231 minutes, and on 8.24 he did 130 minutes. All in all this "marathon" cost him $966.22. And I divided it up in three separate checks as he requested.

2 I deposited, 1 I did not since I was waiting for the funds to be available. They never were.

I contacted him and he promised to send me a money order for $300 to start paying me immediately and promised to pay the whole bill. But he will have $300 in the next week to send me.

It never came.

I continued to attempt to contact him. I didn't document my attepts, but if it's important to know-I have phone records since it's a long distance call.

On the small claims paperwork I filed I claimed he owed me $966.22 in bad checks, $75.00 in bad check charges (3 x $25), $188.55 recovery fees.

Do I have a chance at recovering some, or all of this money? What do I need to do to increase my chances of winning?

I lack some of my usual documentation-time start and stop of each call as with my best customers, I just use a stop watch and don't write down the time since I never had any problems before this particular case. Is this really important anyway?

I have each call length and date. I have check stubs and bank fees for the bad checks ($5 each except the one I never deposited).

How can I win this?

Thanks in advance for your time and trouble...thank you so much.

SaraKate said:

I filed a small claims case. I want to be as prepared as possible when I present my case. Let me give a little back ground.

I do adult phone talk. I accept checks by phone. One of my best customers has written $3248.28 in "good" checks since 1998 to me. I have all these check stubs to show as evidence as I feel they prove this customer's repeated overall satisfaction with my service.

On 8/10, he used my service for 66 minutes, 8/12 for 58 minutes, on 8/13 and 8/14 he did 231 minutes, and on 8.24 he did 130 minutes. All in all this "marathon" cost him $966.22. And I divided it up in three separate checks as he requested.

2 I deposited, 1 I did not since I was waiting for the funds to be available. They never were.

I contacted him and he promised to send me a money order for $300 to start paying me immediately and promised to pay the whole bill. But he will have $300 in the next week to send me.

It never came.

I continued to attempt to contact him. I didn't document my attepts, but if it's important to know-I have phone records since it's a long distance call.

On the small claims paperwork I filed I claimed he owed me $966.22 in bad checks, $75.00 in bad check charges (3 x $25), $188.55 recovery fees.

Do I have a chance at recovering some, or all of this money? What do I need to do to increase my chances of winning?

I lack some of my usual documentation-time start and stop of each call as with my best customers, I just use a stop watch and don't write down the time since I never had any problems before this particular case. Is this really important anyway?

I have each call length and date. I have check stubs and bank fees for the bad checks ($5 each except the one I never deposited).

How can I win this?

Thanks in advance for your time and trouble...thank you so much.

Click to expand...

My response:

I'm trying, very hard, to keep an open mind about what you do for a living, and keeping this strictly on a legal level - - that of contract law.

I imagine a judge is going to have the same problem - or rather, dilemma, that I am about to wonder about with you.
That is, I am not sure if, in the law, there is a difference between "phone sex" and "physical sex" for money under the law.

The dilemma further cradles itself in the near universally accepted, and prohibited, contract elements; that is, in order to have a valid contract, there must be "lawful consideration". In most States, the exchange of money for sex is illegal. Therefore, any contract which, at it's heart, has an illegal consideration is unenforceable.

Without regard to those States where prostitution is legal, e.g., Nevada, this is a real life Constitutional issue where, in most States, such acts are illegal: Is there truly freedom of expression in phone sex; e.g., is it prostitution, in any form, and if not, is it therefore protected speech under the First Amendment ? Or is this type of speech a "play" on words; e.g., there is no difference whether it's speech or physical if the end result is against prurient interests and the laws against prostitution ? Because, in reality, the end result is the same.

I can see both sides of this argument, and I'm wondering, like yourself, if you can prevail on a Breach of Contract theory, or for that matter, any theory.

If one of my Brethren could pop in on this thread to assist, I think more than a few of us could learn something.

IAAL

I would be curious how she could prove that those calls were of a sexual nature and therefore under 'contract' and not just chewing the fat with a long time client. Also, by filing this in court, she is standing out when in an industry where people tend to hide.

A final thought.. could the client claim the charges are unreasonable and above the market rate.. in which case, how could a judge rule on something that is technically illegal and award a lower amount ..

In my opinion there was a contract for services and services were rendered, therefore the Defendant owes the money.
I do not consider the service as phone sex as sex per se that may or may not fall under the respective prostitution laws but merely "pay for play". This service I deem as similar to psychic hotlines or even calling an attorney for legal advice and getting billed accordingly. According to the prostitution laws that I am aware of, the telephone services do not constitute prostitution.

I consider the subject service as basicaly adult talk or conversations of an adult nature whereby the customer pays by the minute. The customer has a track record of using this providers services to satisfaction many times before therefore to now claim that the services were defective would be untrue. In any case, the Defendant has accepted the services and has agreed to pay but is somehow stalling.

I do not feel that the subject and type of service should be questioned as I deem the service to be legal. The question should be why payment has not been made. I also do not feel that the rate should be questioned as I deem that the Defendant accepted the rate. If the Defendant did not accept the rate, he was perfectly free to choose another service provider at a lower rate. There has been a pattern of behavior and relationship between the Defendant and the Plaintiff writer such that I would rule in favor of the Plaintiff.
My only comment to the writer would be to establish a merchant account to accept credit cards and to provide a discount to repeat customers.

Signed,
HomeGuru

"Without regard to those States where prostitution is legal, e.g., Nevada"

"I think more than a few of us could learn something."

IAAL

I had asked you people about this before, but now your singing a different tune. Anyway, talk is protected under the constitution. Except conspiracy, which seems to be a crime of talking.

My response:

Could you please re-post your question here, and my response to you. I just don't recall it.

I hope it has something to do with contract law.

IAAL

thanks homeguru very much

I respectfully thank all three of you who replied.

I especially thank "HomeGuru" for clarifying what I already thought to be true-that I was owed money. Thank you for not getting confused about the nature of my business. Which, by the way, is completely legal. I hold a home occupation business license in this most conservative city of Salt Lake, Utah.

And respectfully I'd like to ask if you think a big obstacle to me collecting will be the fact I didn't write down exact start and end times (since he never contested a call rate or cost, I didn't take that precaution with him) of the calls in question. And if you think this will be an obstacle, what I can do to overcome it.

Like I said in my original post, I have all the check stubs and a basic record (the number of calls he made and the time according to my stopwatch).

Another thing I wonder is if I can collect the "recovery fees" I mentioned in my original post. If you recall, the total I'm asking for is my per minute charges of $966.22, along with a "bad check" charge for 3 checks at $25 each and a recovery fee of $188.55 for my trouble in pursuit of the fees I am owed. How should I present my justification for this "recovery fee" so that I could most likely be granted it?

Thank you so much for your help and HomeGuru, I especially appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt and not having difficulty seeing my case objectively.