The Current Situation

Cut off from the world;

Not entirely, perhaps. I have a phone, which is working for the moment. My TV has been shut off for a while, but we still have Internet, so we can still watch a few things. I can certainly hop in my car and go visit people, but this is expensive and often awkward, because even when they are expecting you, people often don't really want to talk. Obviously, I can write; which helps a little, but its not quite a connection; its a message that goes into a bottle, which is something only needed when you are marooned.

Its normally not much of a problem, really. I like solitude, and my wife does too, and for the most part, we are each all the people the other needs; a pair of semi-monastic semi-misanthropic demi-hermits content to observe in a passive way, contributing minimalistic-ally to the workings of the world.

Then it came about that I needed a lawyer. I'm still looking. Yeah, in my minimalist contributions, by which I mean at one point I had a 'real job', I ended up robbed, by one of those big corporations you hear about. Okay not one, but a few, at different points, in different ways; remember when the banks all freaked out right before the real estate collapse, and hiked all their interest rates up to around thirty percent? I got hit by that, and at about the same time lost my job, which is its own story. Just around seven thousand dollars in debt due to optimistic spending and an illusory bright future, there came the day I missed a payment, and suddenly the figure jumped to around ten thousand, and my income shifted from full time work at a reasonable wage to unemployment income, equivalent to part-time work at minimum wage. I wasted no time signing up for credit rehab, and looking for work again.

Time passed; over the course of a year, and with a couple of small jobs that didn't work out or didn't pay very well, I managed to get the debt back to its original amount. Then along came a great opportunity. I would be earning, according to the craigslist ad, between eight hundred to a thousand dollars a week. At that rate, I could be out of debt in mere months, and have a secure middle-class status in a year's time.

It was, however, one of those opportunities that required investment. All my unemployment money went to purchases for tools and equipment, and my credit rehab went on hold while I spent money on fuel and such, gearing up and training for the gig. All the while racking up overdrafts and surcharges with a credit union which was entirely unsympathetic and unresponsive to my needs.

I changed to a better bank, just in time to finish training and certification. The cost of certification, paid for out-of-pocket, put me in the red with my new account. No problem; it was a good bank that didn't mind if you went over once in a while, and I should be able to pay it back soon enough.

Weeks went by, and I was working. An independent contractor working for a subcontractor working for a subcontractor working for a major telecommunications company. The lead time to get paid was two weeks, but two weeks in it turned out to be a month of lead time. So my job is costing me money; mainly fuel.

So a month in we get the word: We can't pay you, because we haven't been paid in full. My boss hadn't read his contract, and was being charged for materials. He'd had nothing reserved for payroll, and for the first two weeks of work, I got a three hundred dollar check. Roughly seven hundred short of what he owed.

My bills and expenses, however, are regular as the tides. I carry on working.

The next check is a little better, but it bounces. A week or so later, I get paid one thousand cash, for the second two weeks of work. Still not what I'm owed, but the situation seems to be improving.

So I carry on. I miss the better part of a week of work, from being just flat out of gas and no way to do the job. Two weeks down the road, a seven hundred dollar check, which was, sadly, the first one to be for the correct amount.

Three weeks later, my boss's contract is dissolved, and he is told that it will be ninety days before payment for services so far rendered.

That was six months ago. Days after the bad news, my boss vanishes. The last thing I heard from him was that his cell phone was having battery problems, and a couple of emails telling me I should try to deal directly with the subcontractor that severed his contract.

Now, I can't say I wasn't given warning. At one point, someone at the company that severed the contract told me that my boss was losing his contract, and offered to let me come to work directly for them. I applied, but was rejected. In conversations he said outright that he would deny we ever had, he explained that things were “happening at higher levels”. He pointed out that my work was satisfactory, and that there should be no problem getting me on with another company or hiring me directly. Others who worked through the same subcontractor as myself took him up on the offer. No idea what became of most of them.

My boss was having trouble paying me, and was losing his contract, but there was a demand for quality work and so I should be able to carry on, besides which I was heavily invested, so it seemed foolish to pack it in and call it a loss.

Indeed, this same fellow with whom I had the conversations-that-never-happened gave me references. On the last day I saw him, as he was collecting equipment which I had in inventory but would not be able to use, he directed me to another subcontractor who was more successful, and might have a use for me. He also suggested investing in a sole proprietorship, as a retailer for the product, able to work independently of the main subcontractor in the state.

Sure enough, the lead panned out. There was a guy hiring. He looked at my record, and the 'metrics' generated, and was ready to bring me aboard.

Then he called back. Someone at the major subcontractor said no, they would not allow the smaller subcontractor to hire me. No reason was given.

I spent the better part of a month trying to contact the man in question. When I finally did, what he told me was that there wasn't enough work to go around. Hiring in general was suspended.

Yet here I was being offered a job? The guy told me that the matter would be reviewed at a later date.

A later date came and went, and another subcontractor is advertising in the classifieds. He looks at my metrics, agrees to hire me on, and then is told he can't, by that same guy at the major subcontractor. This time, my potential employer is told that I have been classified as “un-hire-able”.

Meanwhile this major subcontractor has not paid a dime for three weeks of work done by several workers.

So yeah. I need a lawyer. My former employer needs a lawyer too, and in fact I probably need a lawyer to get him to get a lawyer, so we can all be paid. My former employer found other work, and is back in the business of keeping his bills paid any way he can, so his incentive to “lawyer up” is mitigated by the conjoining facts that he has no immediate need and very little time.

Plus, and this goes for both of us: Can't Afford A Lawyer.

Seriously. Can't afford to so much as darken the door of certified law practitioners. Went to the state and filed for “lost wages” and in fact I have a hearing coming up soon, in which it will be discovered that yes, my employer owes me money, but no, they aren't from wages earned but for contracted work completed, and so even if he had the money, lost wages probably don't apply anyway, and in any case he won't be compelled to pay; it will be acknowledged for tax purposes that I lost the money, and thats about all.

Could a lawyer even help?

Well, yes. I did work for money and didn't get the money. That much is easy and obvious.

What's more complicated is the assertion that I was not only deprived of money earned, but also deprived of the opportunity to continue working. That's where it becomes a need for a lawyer, rather than just a need to initiate some legal action, such as a small claim.

Well, here is where the problem becomes one of isolation. I could (and have), certainly try to find a lawyer the old fashioned way, which is to make phone calls and knock doors until I find one to take the case. The amount I'm owed, though, is about what it costs to hire a lawyer for just a few hours.

In the bigger more complex problem of the money deprived me by actively preventing me from working (tort interference), the issue inflates. The lawyer would have to work to score a win, and take payment from the settlement or any awarded amount, so he'd have to gamble.

Some places, so I'm told, lawyers are required to do some unpaid (pro-bono) work, as part of their licensing. In this state, however, the pro-bono quota is more of a suggestion. Extensive research on my part has revealed that there is a 'pro-bono' pool somewhere, but there is pretty much no way for regular folks to access it. There was, at one point, an email address, but the link is no longer valid, and a little further research uncovers a ban against it issued by the state supreme court, on the basis that the organization that generated it was not approved by the state bar.

So if there are lawyers or firms that will take my case pro-bono, I have to find them by talking to each one, one at a time, going through the phone book. (I'm still doing this, and will continue to do so until my phone gets shut off.)

There is one state service, which charges thirty dollars to post your case on a bulletin board, from which a lawyer might offer a thirty minute consultation. If I come out thirty dollars ahead at any point, I intend to try this. Where I'm at now, though, thirty is a lot of money.

The other option is contingency-based representation, such as is offered for lawsuits based on accident and injury. Generally, this pay-when-you-win option is reserved for cases against insurance companies and such, where the objective is deep pockets and the leverage comes from some direct bodily harm. The stereotypical “ambulance chaser” will take a case with a high payout potential without any up-front charges. Its a safe bet that these cases are carefully screened for a shoo-in situation.

Mine isn't. Again, that I'm owed is certain, but the amount is negligible for anyone not living in poverty, so there is no payoff for any legal professional willing to take up the fight. My assertion that without being directly interfered I should be financially stable, and even prosperous is a good one, and solid enough, but there is a real battle there, as a big company with a staff of lawyers is likely standing by with loopholes and clauses and precedent and an extant lobby which has already influenced a great deal of legislation. The payoff, still, would not be much by a lawyer's standards, though it would be substantial enough for me to get out of debt, at least enough to put me back where I was when I started work.

So, like, basically, no love from the legal profession. Maybe this will change; I might stumble upon some lawyer of firm with philanthropic inclinations, or at least a willingness to gamble. It won't happen in time to keep me from being evicted.

Where do you go next? Well, my former employer spoke about going to the press. Good idea, right? Big company does wrong and is stomping on the little guy, ruining lives and small businesses, and getting away with it just because the victims of their wrongdoing are too broke to sue -you'd think this would be newsworthy.

Well, either it happens often enough that it just isn't news, but just an acceptable status quo, or it just doesn't affect enough people to make it interesting, or maybe there just isn't enough drama until someone like myself goes postal or at the very least commits suicide.

Even in these cases, what, maybe an article on page six? Forgotten in days, and unresolved.

So far, neither articles written nor attempts at bending the ear of some noble minded journalist have born fruit.