[mgkimsal]

Similar situation, but closer to $9k. Filed a lawsuit in court - still waiting 3.5 years later (NYC). I suspect it'll take a long to collect even after a judgement.

Yes, don't extend so much credit - lesson learned (the hard way).

I consulted with a number of people debating whether or not to blog about this situation with the person's name. In the end I chose not to at that time, but realized later that this person had another non-payment suit pending which had been filed the day before I started working with him. Had I researched a bit more, I might have found that (but then again, I might not have - you often don't think to do court record searches on potential clients). I ended up not disclosing his name in my blog, but did disclose the location I filed a suit. Anyone wanting to know can go check the public records and find out for themselves. Felt like a decent middle ground, and it's not irrevocably commiting myself to having been the "name and shamer". But without more naming and shaming, this behaviour by some people will continue. I found out later that this guy had also stiffed multiple other parties, who were then coming to me for advice about how to collect. "File a NY lawsuit" was the only answer I had.

Perhaps some public naming and shaming would either correct this person's behaviour or at least ward off others from working with him in the future. one person complaining about no payment can be written off as a crank. 5 devs in a 5 month period, all from different areas, would be harder to dismiss.

[vacri]

Another middle ground would be to name and shame just to thing that are factually part of the public record: "I am suing John Smith in court for non-payment of $9k for work done 3.5 years ago". Don't go into fiery detail, keep it to the facts that are part of the court record.

Of course, the hard part is keeping all the opinion stuff out of the blog posts around the fact-only one.

[mgkimsal]

right... well, that's almost what I did. saying where it was, letting someone google my name in nyc and look for court records. i've only sued one person in nyc - it wouldn't be that hard.

But, publicizing on my blog, yeah. In some ways I think the moment's passed. If/when we ever get to court, I'll release the name then, unless there's some gag order (am I being too dramatic?)

[vacri]

The difference is that if someone is googling John Smith, they won't find your blog post without his name on it.

Thankfully I've never had to experience court on either side - it looks like it gets expensive very very quickly.

[mgkimsal]

I'm representing myself, so it was only the trip to NYC, filing fees, and hiring a processor. The processor could not get this guy, so we filed a notice saying he'd attempted 3 times. I suspect this guy has avoided process servers before, but not sure.

Yes, the googling aspect doesn't help too much. Interestingly, having to remember back to 2008, this same situation happened with someone else they'd contracted. This particular contractor was in tennessee, and was owed ... much less than me. He blogged about it by name, and the NYC guy apparently (per the TN guy's story) went ballistic threatening to sue and such, and said he would pay when the post was taken down. So... it was taken down. Then never paid. The TN guy eventually gave up through these bullying tactics. I'm not going to give up.

It's so far in the past now that, while $9k would be great, I don't need it, and won't settle for half, nor will I settle for any conditions about not blogging about it.