Got The Letter From The Lawyer Today

[Abigail]

Very well done! I would be nervous enough going to court (since anytime I took someone to court they never signed papers and a court date was never set up, so I won by default--yet never got the money since I didn't know their place of employment until afterwards!)

[missnikki]

QualiTCare is absolutely right. What are you going to do in court when the lawyer asks to see your "formal response" that you mentioned? Leave it out, the rest is magnificently simple.

[cillybean83]

I've decided not to respond to him at all. I'm so done with this situation, I know I'm at a disadvantage in the courtroom since she has a lawyer and I don't, but I don't see how he can really help her.

I'm going to call his office tomorrow morning and be like look, you want to sweep this under the rug and have me settle for nothing, and that isn't going to happen. I'll tell him what I'm willing to offer to settle out of court, and he can either agree or disagree, at which point I'll go ahead and file my suit.

He's claiming that she will counter sue me for $400 (funny, that's the exact amount she owes me...) because she is claiming that she loaned me $650!!! That's craziness, I don't take LOANS from daycare parents! She prepaid $650 into her daycare account, the deposit date was recorded and the amount that was deducted each week was recorded both on billing statements and payment receipts. When she pulled her daughter out of daycare her account still had $250 in it, and I applied the entire $250 to her bill and I'm only suing for the balance which was 1 week of care that went unpaid, an extra day of care that went unpaid, and the withdrawl without notice fee.

He's also claiming that she didn't pull her child out of daycare, as in she didn't terminate her contract, and that her telling me that if I thought I watched her child too much then I shouldn't watch her anymore isn't an admission that she wanted to end care....but she told me point blank over the phone that she didn't want me to watch her anymore because all i care about is money, she told me in an email that she would never step foot in my house again, and the day she withdrew her kid she was told that she was welcome to continue in our daycare she just needed to make her account current and she sent her husband to pick up their kid instead of sending him to pay...all of that seems to easily prove that she did in fact cancel her contract without notice!

In any event, I doubt that our emails and facebook messages will hold any weight for either of us in court, you can copy and paste, alter, and rewrite emails and IMs so they aren't exactly credible....

What do you guys think about this mess?? I'm 100% confident that I'll win my case if we go to court, would you agree or do you think I should drop it?? I'm just curious of outside opinions

[Abigail]

I don't know the "rules" of having a lawyer, like if you even need to respond. Since you didn't send the letter you were thinking, I wouldn't respond at all. I would just go file on the 24th or whatever day you said you were going to. I'm sorry this happened. I'm so glad that I'm not doing daycare unless they pay upfront. I don't ever want to be in this situation.

[Blackcat31]

Before I stumbled upon running a daycare 17 years ago, I was in school to become a para-legal and after two years of schooling I learned enough to know that;
1. you should NOT respond, (he is baiting, intimidating, strongarming, coercing etc you)
2. file as planned with the info you have.
3. Stay professional, don't talk about feelings and impressions or anything implied...just facts.
File, go to court, let the judge ask the questions, and present your evidence. When and if she tries to countersue you, she has the burden of proof....Just as you do in your initial filing.
Don't respond to an unnecessary lawyer that SHE hired. Anything you say can and will be used against you! Calling him says you MAY be willing to negotiate. Are you? If not; file, present evidence, win.

[marniewon]

Before I stumbled upon running a daycare 17 years ago, I was in school to become a para-legal and after two years of schooling I learned enough to know that;
1. you should NOT respond, (he is baiting, intimidating, strongarming, coercing etc you)
2. file as planned with the info you have.
3. Stay professional, don't talk about feelings and impressions or anything implied...just facts.
File, go to court, let the judge ask the questions, and present your evidence. When and if she tries to countersue you, she has the burden of proof....Just as you do in your initial filing.
Don't respond to an unnecessary lawyer that SHE hired. Anything you say can and will be used against you! Calling him says you MAY be willing to negotiate. Are you? If not; file, present evidence, win.

I don't know a lot about law, but this seems like the way I would go also. Don't respond to him. File your suit. Be professional. State facts. Win the case .

If he (lawyer) had sent a letter asking you to consider dropping the late fees if it doesn't go to court, or something reasonable like that, I definitely consider it and contact him. But he didn't. The fact that he told you that you'll want to read the letter before filing, and then in the letter saying mom will countersue if you file, that tells me that he's threatening you, trying to scare you into backing down. You have no reason to be afraid, and responding to him will just make him think he's starting to break you. I would go on as you intended to do before you even heard of his existence.

[jen]

I still don't think she "hired" an attorney. It would cost WAY more than just paying what is owed. It is probably a friend or a friend of a friend doing it for free...now if he is willing to actually show up in court for something he isn't being paid for is something else all together.

I think I would reply that his information is incorrect, that you are willing to settle for $*** and to be paid prior to DATE, or you will file with the court on DATE.

[dEHmom]

Before I stumbled upon running a daycare 17 years ago, I was in school to become a para-legal and after two years of schooling I learned enough to know that;
1. you should NOT respond, (he is baiting, intimidating, strongarming, coercing etc you)
2. file as planned with the info you have.
3. Stay professional, don't talk about feelings and impressions or anything implied...just facts.

Are you telling me Blackcat, that you learned 3 things in 2 years? Jk.

[Blackcat31]

Are you telling me Blackcat, that you learned 3 things in 2 years? Jk.

Obviously in our current line of work those were the three most important things to have retained.....LOL!::

FTR, I learned alot more but most of it was about business (big box type) law and contract law in regards to property and land. One of our instructors was a real estate lawyer and the other was the attorney for a huge papermill company here in town...so if you have land disputes, especially implied easements or employee contracts that deal with over 500 employees, you give me a call and I will be glad to help!

[dEHmom]

Obviously in our current line of work those were the three most important things to have retained.....LOL!::

FTR, I learned alot more but most of it was about business (big box type) law and contract law in regards to property and land. One of our instructors was a real estate lawyer and the other was the attorney for a huge papermill company here in town...so if you have land disputes, especially implied easements or employee contracts that deal with over 500 employees, you give me a call and I will be glad to help!

HAHA, yeah I was just buggin ya. I got up on the right side of the bed today. But so far DCG is not taking her morning nap, and it's worrying me. Moms prego, and she's at home, Dad was really late dropping off (an hour late) but his tire blew on the hwy coming in. He was fumin when he got here, for a big big football looking guy, I think I saw a tear in there.

I think you've made the right choice Cillybean. Best not to discuss any matters with him. Maybe simply just inform him, date payment is due with all late payments included, or you will file suit next day. End of story, period period period.

[Unregistered]

I have been in a similar situation only ended up in small claims court over $750. Won the case, but it will be years before I see the money as dcm owes thousands to several others who also recieved income executions against her. I am getting 18 cents a day interest. Was it worth it? In my mind it was the right thing to do, but a lot of stress and fees to go through the courts.

[Daycare_Mama]

You mentioned something about facebook, emails not being credible because of copy and paste, and I know what you mean about emails, but I'm pretty sure you could print your facebook messages. There's no way to copy/paste new/edited info into old facebook messages like you can in regular email. It's all time/dated too.

So you could either just try printing it as is (file, print) or take a screen shot of your page with the messages up and save it as a picture and print that. Just a thought, if your fb messages validate what you have said to her.

[Preschool/daycare teacher]

I've decided not to respond to him at all. I'm so done with this situation, I know I'm at a disadvantage in the courtroom since she has a lawyer and I don't, but I don't see how he can really help her.

I'm going to call his office tomorrow morning and be like look, you want to sweep this under the rug and have me settle for nothing, and that isn't going to happen. I'll tell him what I'm willing to offer to settle out of court, and he can either agree or disagree, at which point I'll go ahead and file my suit.

He's claiming that she will counter sue me for $400 (funny, that's the exact amount she owes me...) because she is claiming that she loaned me $650!!! That's craziness, I don't take LOANS from daycare parents! She prepaid $650 into her daycare account, the deposit date was recorded and the amount that was deducted each week was recorded both on billing statements and payment receipts. When she pulled her daughter out of daycare her account still had $250 in it, and I applied the entire $250 to her bill and I'm only suing for the balance which was 1 week of care that went unpaid, an extra day of care that went unpaid, and the withdrawl without notice fee.

He's also claiming that she didn't pull her child out of daycare, as in she didn't terminate her contract, and that her telling me that if I thought I watched her child too much then I shouldn't watch her anymore isn't an admission that she wanted to end care....but she told me point blank over the phone that she didn't want me to watch her anymore because all i care about is money, she told me in an email that she would never step foot in my house again, and the day she withdrew her kid she was told that she was welcome to continue in our daycare she just needed to make her account current and she sent her husband to pick up their kid instead of sending him to pay...all of that seems to easily prove that she did in fact cancel her contract without notice!

In any event, I doubt that our emails and facebook messages will hold any weight for either of us in court, you can copy and paste, alter, and rewrite emails and IMs so they aren't exactly credible....

What do you guys think about this mess?? I'm 100% confident that I'll win my case if we go to court, would you agree or do you think I should drop it?? I'm just curious of outside opinions

just wondering...do you have in your policy that payment is due whether or not they attend? Because it that's so, and the mom claims she didn't terminate the contract and if you didn't either, then oh my I just think the mom may owe you for all the days her child has not been in care, on top of the $450! Is there any paper trail between you or the mom that's actually in writing of the date of child's last day of care? If you don't already, for next time I would have something in a policy stating that should parent wish to terminate care, they would have to give you a written, signed and dated withdrawl notice. Until provider receives IN WRITING that a child's last day will be x date, the child would not be considered withdrawn. Which means payments will still rack up until provider has received that signed letter. That way you will have a signed letter from them saying that THEY are terminating care. So if they turn around and try to tell the court that they didn't end the contract, you have all the evidence needed saying that they DID.
If any of that makes sense (I'm sure someone else knows how it should be worded). Good luck and keep us updated. I really can't see any way how she could win that one, even with a lawyer. She may be like so many other people and just not show up after finding out that you aren't dropping the case. You can always hope for that! That would make things less stressful on court day!