llllnnnnllll
Junior Member
Hi Guys, I would need some advise about a commission dispute with my previous employer.
I live in Maryland, and so does the company.
I started in the company with a technical role, and then changed to inside sales (earning both base salary and commission). For the commission, I got paid quarterly, after the company receives the payments for the sales I conducted. I left the company about 3 months ago, while there were still some unpaid orders. Before I left the CEO agreed to pay me after the payments for those orders are received. But now I tried to email and call the CEO to get paid, he never responded. Now I'm thinking about filing a lawsuit, and need some advises:
1. Because the job change was based on an oral agreement with the boss, there was no written contract or offer letter stating the commission or the percentage. But I have the email records and payment histories showing that I got the commissions in the past, and can prove the agreed percentage by the old sales order lists. Will this be enough to prove my claim?
2. If I hire an attorney to help me with the case, will I need to pay the legal fees out of my pocket (deducted from my final payment)? Or can I ask the employer to pay for this, because this is their fault? A local lawyer told me the employer will not be obligated to pay me anything more than what they owe me, so I have to pay 1/3 of the payment as the legal fee. This sounds unfair to me because this means the company can then always do this and hurt the quitting employees. Am I right or wrong?
Thank you!!!
I live in Maryland, and so does the company.
I started in the company with a technical role, and then changed to inside sales (earning both base salary and commission). For the commission, I got paid quarterly, after the company receives the payments for the sales I conducted. I left the company about 3 months ago, while there were still some unpaid orders. Before I left the CEO agreed to pay me after the payments for those orders are received. But now I tried to email and call the CEO to get paid, he never responded. Now I'm thinking about filing a lawsuit, and need some advises:
1. Because the job change was based on an oral agreement with the boss, there was no written contract or offer letter stating the commission or the percentage. But I have the email records and payment histories showing that I got the commissions in the past, and can prove the agreed percentage by the old sales order lists. Will this be enough to prove my claim?
2. If I hire an attorney to help me with the case, will I need to pay the legal fees out of my pocket (deducted from my final payment)? Or can I ask the employer to pay for this, because this is their fault? A local lawyer told me the employer will not be obligated to pay me anything more than what they owe me, so I have to pay 1/3 of the payment as the legal fee. This sounds unfair to me because this means the company can then always do this and hurt the quitting employees. Am I right or wrong?
Thank you!!!