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by Mylinda Tubbs Faircloth Sometime around August of the year 2000, I took a deposition for a client of mine. The attorney on the other side requested a copy of the deposition by signing the order form I passed around. I prepared the deposition, copied, bound and delivered it to all ordering attorneys. Jump ahead to the year 2002. It’s January, some 15 months since the deposition was taken. My attorney, Casey Jon Lambright, happens to be a guy who truly appreciates court reporters (in particular me) and will pretty much pursue any invoice I give to him, no matter how small. He knows that I have what it takes to win; a signed order form, telephone log, delivery receipt, and several letters attempting collection. My attorney calls me and says we are going to trial in this case. This DBA (deadbeat attorney) has dragged us through two court systems at this point. We went through the whole process of filing in small claims court, only to have the attorney appeal the judgment we obtained against him. What that means is that we start all over. Casey again filed the case, this time in county court. We went through discovery and interrogatories, blah, blah, blah. The DBA basically filed a general denial. So, here we go. Casey has an associate (Clay) working for him that just got licensed last May. He’s a total sweetheart and really knows what he’s doing. Clay and I went down to the courthouse for trial, both of us very nervous, even though we were prepared. Clay put me on the stand first, asked the basic questions proving up the order and my attempts to collect the fees before turning it over for collection. The DBA passed me, not asking a single question. How disappointing is that? I was soooooo ready. Clay testified concerning the attorneys’ fees that they had racked up over the past 15 months, and then it was the DBA’s turn. He picked over and abused on Clay for about 30 minutes, but Clay never wavered. Finally, it was the DBA’s turn to testify. Now, I am not making this up -- this is in essence what he said, and he actually thought the judge would buy it. He said that he had not ordered the transcript or signed the order form, even though the signature matched the one in his pleadings. To me, this was tantamount to saying that I forged his signature – for $201.40. He said that if he did order it, it was a mistake because he had no need for it. He told the judge that when he received the transcript, he assumed it was an error on my part. He MEANT to send it back, he really did, but other things that were more important kept coming up and eventually the transcript was buried on his conference table by other more important things. He said that it wasn’t until he received some court documents (many months later) that had a copy of the order form attached that he realized we MIGHT have a valid claim. At this point, he offered to pay the original amount of the invoice, even though my attorneys had been working on it for months. Of course, my attorneys refused. He said that we were operating in bad faith and that once HE realized we MIGHT have a valid claim he had really tried to settle it, but my attorneys wouldn’t cooperate, blah, blah, blah. When we were all through, we turned expectantly to the judge. It’s a toss-up as to which one of us was more nervous, Clay or me. This was his first solo trial. The judge didn’t buy anything he said for a minute! She even stated in her findings of fact (or was it the conclusions of law) that the actions of the defendant bordered on abuse of process. I loved it. She gave us a judgment in the amount of just under $3600 on a $201 invoice. My attorneys received over $3100 in fees. It was beautiful. The next day we received a fax from the DBA offering to finally settle the matter for a one-time $3000 payment, but we basically had to agree to a no-fault judgment. I, of course, declined this generous (not) offer and told my attorneys to take nothing less than the full amount that we had already been awarded by the court. My attorneys faxed back a letter offering to settle it for $75 MORE than the judgment by the court, (since they’d now had to write another letter), cash in hand by 5 p.m. that day, and we’d drop the suit so there would be no judgment on file. We ended up receiving a check in the amount of $3651.74 on what started as a $201.40 invoice. So, here’s the moral of the story. FIGHT THEM FOR YOUR MONEY. You have a right to be paid for the work you’ve done, and there are attorneys, good attorneys, who will take you on and will do their best for you, because they believe that we deserve it. They know how hard we work, and they believe we ought to be paid for that work. You know, come to think of it, I’ll bet that next time the DBA either passes on the order form or pays the reporter. He definitely will not let “something more important” keep him from paying his bills again! (Back to Table of Contents) |