Originally posted by 96RedSE5Sp:
Forget all the [censored] about suing for pain and suffering and for your legal fees. It ain't gonna happen. In most states, pain and suffering is NEVER awarded in a breach of contract case. Unless you live in Engalnd, in almost every case, each litigant pays his or her own attorney, except when there is a contractual clause that provides otherwise. If you had paid an attorney $500 or so to draft a contract beforehand, you'd be in a lot better shape now.

I'd say you have two choices. (1) Pony up the money and hire a lawyer to go after the guy; or (2) Save yourself the expense of hiring a lawyer; complain to anyone who will listen and seek free legal advice on the internet from well-meaning car nuts who know very little about the law.

Your situation reminds me of that of a friend of mine. His transmission went. He needs his car, knows very little about transmissions, but does not want to pay a mechanic.



Originally posted by 96RedSE5Sp:
Also, forget about any lawyer taking this on a contingency basis. Any competent lawyer is going to require a retainer and will bill you on an hourly basis. This is not a personal injury case.

Assuming you hire a lawyer, the one thing you can do to save your lawyer time and save you money is to write out, in as detailed a manner as possible, exactly what your agreement was with the guy who is screwing you. Write this out in the form of a contract, as if your original agreement had been reduced to writing. Gather together all writings which have any relevance to your business dealings with this guy and write down, as best as you can recollect, every conversation that you had with this guy concerning your dealing. If you have had any past busines dealing with this guy, that would also be relevant.

Oral contracts are generally enforceable, but the burden would be on you to establish all the terms of this oral agreement.



everything this man has said is correct. you can't sue for pain and suffering in a contractual dispute and you can't collect for attorney's fees in pretty much any suit. you guys may be thinking of when the attorney takes his cut out of your award in a personal injury suit. sure, the other side is paying for it, physically, but youre paying for it literally. that's a contingency fee based case. there are no contingency fees in contract suits. they can always go either way and no lawyer is going to do that kind of work and possibly not get paid. my advice, have a lawyer prep paperwork for you inadvance (as already suggested) and if youre going to be playing big business man, as it sounds like you are, then keep a lawyer on a retainer!

sue him now. money recovered is better than nothing. and look at this way. you may only walk away with $5k but that's more than you will get if you dont take action AND think of how much HE will have to actually pay. he'll pay you and your attorney $13k PLUS $5-7k to HIS attorney to defend his shyster ass. For less than $1k your attorney should be able to send some letters to this guy advising that a lawsuit is eminent and settling NOW for X amount of dollars would be highly advantageous to him. ie save on his lawyer fees. most cases dont end up in court because of lawyer fees. most cases are settled outside of court. this is the first step in filing a suit against him and may in fact end up the last, so you dont pay $7k to the lawyer but just for his settling the case. $7k is his worst case scenario estimate. if that seems high, shop around. there's always someone willing to do it for less, but experience helps.

and on the brighter side of things: i just finished a year of contracts class. suprisingly, sooo many of the cases that end up in court are the ones without a written contract. ie tons are done verbally, most common between construction guys. sure, the majority do it in writing, which can still end up in court, although less to dispute, but sooo many are done orally too. especially when people know each other as in your case. not having it in writing does NOT mean your f*cked! it's just not as solid. your conduct you have done, aka work you have done, is evidence to your case. just make sure you tell your lawyer EVERYTHING! you dont want to spend a few grand just to later remember something that puts holes in your case. if you give him everything now he can tell you how strong your case is and if you should even pursue.

i dont know when this happened but i believe the average statutory limit for a contract breach is 1-2 years. depends on your state.

Originally posted by Tourgasm:
Sometimes you can mess up a word so bad that spell check doens't know what the hell you're talking about.