This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Can you file a small claims suit against a big business? If you get ripped off, if you get scammed, or if you just have like a really frustrating experience with a big corporation, which, you know, is not unusual, what can you do about it? Like, can you actually take a big business to small claims court? And I'll answer this from the perspective of being in the U.S., but a lot of different countries have these legal systems which are accessible to average people, at least with a bit of work. So it's a little bit different than going out to hire a lawyer, which is really expensive.
Can you actually go and hold people to account or hold companies to account? Today's caller has had a negative experience. They're not getting paid for work they've completed. So they are a freelancer, I believe, some type of contractor, and they did some work for a big business. And now the big business, maybe some ownership has changed or something, they'll tell us more.
But basically the person or the people in charge are like, we're not gonna pay you, we're not taking responsibility. So as I said, very annoying and frustrating. What can they do? Let's see if we can help somebody get paid. And in case you ever have a frustrating experience that needs to go to small claims court, how do you proceed?
It's all coming up in this quick action-packed episode. Stay tuned. [Music]
Hey there, Chris, this is Logan. And I have a challenging situation I've been trying to figure out. I don't wanna share all the details since this is a potential legal matter, but the short version is that I have a small business that provides cleaning services to several offices and multi-use facilities.
One of my contracts was for a building that recently changed hands. The new owner doesn't want my services anymore, which is disappointing, but I understand, these things happen. However, I still haven't been paid for the last four weeks of cleaning under the previous ownership. Each side has given me the runaround. The old owner says that the new owner assumed all debt with the purchase.
The new owner says that that's not the case. At this point, I'm ready to be more proactive and I'm thinking of trying small claims court. It's several thousand dollars, which is a lot to me, but not really enough to hire a lawyer and go through full litigation. Do you think I should take this approach? And if so, do I file against the old owner or the new one or both?
Thanks for any advice you can provide. [Music]
Well, this is very frustrating and just want to acknowledge that to begin with and also say most of the time it doesn't happen this way for any new contractors or freelancers out there. I don't want you to be afraid. These are the minority of situations. Most of the time you're gonna have good clients or at least you'll have average clients.
You're gonna have some great ones and some that are just fine. And you're not gonna have many that are just bad like this. But when we get in this situation, it's one of these problems that doesn't have a great outcome at least initially, but I think small claims court is ideal for this because you don't have to hire a lawyer. And I think our caller said it could be several thousand dollars, it can be, but sometimes it can just be a few hundred dollars. Now that's still real money and it still takes time and such.
But often if your claim is pretty clear cut, like it seems like it is here, hey, I did this work. The company hired me to do work, then they didn't pay me. Maybe there's some more details or more to the story, but if there's not, there's a good chance the company is just gonna pay up to be done with it, or they won't show up to small claims court and you'll get a judgment in your favor. So the best thing to do is just look up small claims court in your jurisdiction, your city, your county, your state, province, et cetera. And if you go through the first initial steps and get to the point of filing, which as I said, might cost a couple hundred dollars, maybe more, but shouldn't be a huge amount more, then often you're gonna get the outcome that you want.
It's still frustrating and annoying to be in this situation, but I think you should get paid for the work that you do, especially when there's no ambiguity about it. So I don't want you to just give up and walk away. And then as for the part about, do you file against the old owner or the new one or both? That's a good question. I'm not a lawyer, but I tend to think if it's small claims and you had a clear agreement with one person, I would start with that person and see what happens from there.
As I said, not legal advice, but small claims is meant to be something that the average person can navigate on their own. And I have heard a number of success stories through it. So I think overall, it's a fairly reasonable process. Good luck, of course. Listeners, let me know if you have questions or comments or experiences, of course, sidehustleschool.com.
We're excited to be close to halfway through the year here, episode 3,441. Much more is coming out though, of course, seven days a week, new episodes. You can access all of the historical archive of the podcast at sidehustleschool.com or just keep listening for more. Thank you for being there. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
