Wherein I Stopped Being A Mediator and Started Being a Businessman.

Quite plainly afraid of confrontation, he always calls in the 7:00 hour, morning or night, wholly unaware that my office line rolls to my cell.  Like the other conversations, it beings with the exhortation that he is trying to pay me and isn’t avoiding me.  At first, I took a soft, conciliatory, mediator-like  approach.  I listened.  I understood his problems.  I told him I was willing to “work with him.”  I foolishly reduced the amount he owed by about 30%.  I gave him until his next paycheck.

Weeks passed.  No checks in my mailbox.

This call was more of the same.  This time I had had enough.

“Times are hard,” he said.  Times are hard all over, I replied.

“Can you work with me?” he queried.  No, I’ve already “worked” with you, I told him firmly.

“I’m not not trying to pay you,” he exclaimed quite dubiously.  No, I said, your failure to pay me for over 6 weeks now shows me that you really aren’t trying to pay me at all, I sternly replied.   If I don’t receive payment, in full, in the next X days, I’m off to Small Claims Court to file suit.  And I will ask for far more than the fee I offered to accept as a compromise, including my attorney’s fees, court costs and interest.

And so it goes.  I really don’t expect to be paid.  I will absolutely file suit, but I don’t expect him to show up.  I will take a default, but I will likely find it hard to collect.  I take it as a hazard of working court-referred cases.  While I’ve never had a client with an attorney fail to pay and I’ve even had some attorneys pay when their clients haven’t,  I guess I shouldn’t expect much from pro se parties being sued for unpaid credit card bills or held in contempt for unpaid child support.