You bits and pieces of the right answer in the posts here. If you have contacted the main company and ask for payment, and they said your sub was already paid, then you will need to file a small claims case in TN. I do not know the max in that state - all states are different. But, attorneys are not allowed in small claims in TN unless they are the direct representative of the company, i.e., on company payroll. So you can not bring an attorney. It has to be filed in the county you were contracted in - example, if you were contracted by the company in Nashville, but did the work in Memphis, you would have file in Nashville, okay?
Be sure to include both companies in the suit. Then, you need to ask the courts to subpeona the company to produce the paid check(s) that were paid to the sub. The next thing you need to do is put your information together in a very concise, understandable way, so that someone who is not in the business could pick it up and understand it with little or no explanation - because most of these cases are taken under advisement, and the judge will sit on it for up to 2 weeks before making a ruling, sometimes. (chances are if the prime paid, the judge will dismiss that case, and if the sub did not, then that one would remain.)
That is the easy part. The next part is if you are sure you will not be paid still, even if you get the judgement, ask the judge to enter a garnishment. Once you have a garnishment, you can attach liens to the business and any property that the company has - vehicles, housing, offices, land, and if the business is a DBA under the individual, you can even place a lien against their personal properties and bank accounts. Each lien will cost you about $10 to $25, so choose wisely which properties you would like to put a lien against.
The easiest way to enter garnishments and liens is to make sure the order has the individuals name and the company name. Take it to the county tax assessors office and have them look up the property. Once you have a list of properties, you can pick the ones that would equal your outstanding invoice totals. And file to have a garnishment or lien put against them. You would have to contact each bank individually and either do it in person, or send them a certified copy of the garnishment information so they could verify the person has an account with them, and put in a garnishment.
Hope this helps...BTW, time frame to do all of this and have your case heard, and garnishment in place - about a year.
Re: How to get monies owed to me
Member #: 45787
Registered: 4/23/2006
Posted:
80
Name:
NoKBull
Name:
Andee Carter
Company:
Independent Contractors
Occupation:
Tech
Location:
Michigan
Personal:
late 40s
Experience:
~20 years
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