My lawyer talked me out of suing a client and I'm glad he did

I had a customer who refused to pay a $2,500 invoice for IT work I did. I was ready to take her to small claims court and told my lawyer to draft the papers. He sat me down and said 'you'll win the money but lose a lot more in time and stress.' He walked me through the actual costs of filing fees, missing work, and the chance she'd counterclaim for something small. I decided to send a final demand letter instead and she paid within a week. Has anyone else had a lawyer talk them out of a lawsuit that saved them hassle?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles_baker283d ago

Read something similar in a business magazine once, where a guy sued a client over $800 and ended up spending over $4,000 in legal fees and lost work time. Your lawyer was smart to walk you through all that hidden cost stuff people forget about. Filing fees alone can add up fast, plus missing a whole day of work just to sit in a courtroom waiting for your turn to talk. The counterclaim thing is real too, some people will try to drag you into a bigger mess just to get back at you. Sounds like that final letter did the trick because most folks don't want to deal with lawyers showing up at their door either. Better to get paid quick and move on to the next job than waste months fighting over a couple grand.

samrodriguez3d ago

Works the same way with everything now. People don't think about what it actually costs to fight something. Time, stress, lost sleep, missed opportunities. The real price isn't just the money you pay out. Saw a neighbor spend six months arguing over a fence line worth maybe a thousand bucks. Lost a whole summer over it. Life's too short for that kind of weight.

olivia_lopez982d ago

That business magazine story reminds me of my friend Marco who got into a fight with his landlord over a $500 deposit. Ended up spending like eight weekends going back and forth to small claims court, plus the filing fees and parking each time. He won the case but told me he would have rather just worked an extra Saturday shift and forgot about the whole thing. The worst part was the stress ate at him so bad his doctor put him on blood pressure meds for a few months.