My lawyer won't do his job?

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Xena Warrior Princess

New member
I won a lawsuit. I'm supposed to get a small check every Friday for the next 12 years.

The bastard I sued likes to push the envelope until he gets caught. The checks have been coming since October 08, but in the past 3 or 4 months, he's been late every single week but more recently, he's been late up to three weeks.. I'm supposed to get checks on Friday, not monday or tuesday or wednesday the week after!

My lawyer said to call him if he misses payments. Which he has. I moved on June 1st. The same day I updated my address at my lawyers. The bastard sent a check on the 10th for the two weeks he missed (which didn't include THAT week) at my OLD address.. He is now two more weeks late.

I called when I didn't recieve two checks in a row, which is what my lawyer said, and then he said to wait a month until we go after him. What the hell? This guy is doing whatever he wants, sending the checks whenever he wants, and getting away with it..My lawyer isn't doing his job.. What can I do about this?
 
Ah, enforcing a judgment. The *hard* part of litigation.

I'm not entirely clear on this: I presume the opposing party is supposed to be sending you the cheques directly? And he's been increasingly late in doing so?

The question is this: What do you want your lawyer to do about it? Send large men with clubs to pay a visit to the opposing party?

Of course not. What your lawyer can do is take further steps to enforce the judgment or settlement, as the case may be. This costs money, and takes a fair amount of time. Here's the real issue: Your lawyer will go to court at some point in a couple months to get last week's pay. By that time, last week's pay will already have been received, so the issue will be moot.

As long as you're still getting the payments, you should be happy. The numbers I've heard are that approximately 50% of judgments are never collected.

If this were a settlement, I'd hope there would be an acceleration clause in settlement that makes the full amount due in the event of any default, which means that there might be some function in enforcing the settlement when he's a bit late. Then again, my hunch is that this payment plan is in place because the guy can't afford to pay more, faster. Can't get blood from a stone.

The most your lawyer could really do is send a firm letter to the other side noting the lateness and insisting upon prompt payment of all overdue amounts and any further amounts as they come due. And he probably should do that.

The address update could be a problem at your lawyer's end. Possibly not.

Bottom line, though, is that there isn't some magic button lawyers press to make debtors pay up. It's a difficult process, it's expensive, and it isn't at all worth it while it seems that the opposing party is still actually making his payments, albeit in a delayed fashion.
 
ask him what can we do about this or u could always fire him. u could always ask the guy why does he keep doing this
 
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