My boss required me to be certified in certain things in order to do my job. He paid for the training and the exam. Once I met all the requirements I asked him what my salary would be... my salary increased .50 cents. The next day I gave him a 2 weeks notice and his first response was "I wish you would have told me this sooner before I invested my time and money in you" He then proceeds to humiliate me even further with other demeaning comments and said I would have to pay him back for the courses I took and the exams I passed because no one else was going to benefit from something he paid for. He told me I had to sign something stating how much he would take out of my paychecks until he was paid in full. Had he not pounded myself esteem in the ground on numerous other occasions, I would not have felt pressured to do it. This is not the first time I have felt helpless and felt like there would be hell to pay had I not done what he asked me to do. I do not feel like I owe him this money back, nor did I feel like I owed it to him when I signed the document. But I felt like I had no other choice. Could I take him to small claims court for my money back?

Most companies WILL take recent training costs they paid for out of your pay if you leave before a period they say if you quit. I'm willing to bet they have a written policy to that effect on file.

You can fight it but you are likely to lose.

You are going to have a hard time proving you signed it under duress... and even then it looks like this, you get them to pay for stuff which is supposed to benefit them... yet you up and quit right afterwards to take those fresh credentials to go for a better job somewhere else.

Chances of you winning are very, very low.

Just like accepting a retention bonus then quitting and expecting to keep it.

I don't see a case for duress;

"Duress in the context of contract law is a common law defense, and if one is successful in proving that the contract is vitiated by duress, the contract may be rescinded, since it is then voidable.

Duress has been defined as a "threat of harm made to compel a person to do something against his or her will or judgment; esp. a wrongful threat made by one person to compel a manifestation of seeming assent by another person to a transaction without real volition". - Black's Law Dictionary (8th ed. 2004)

Duress in contract law falls into two broad categories:[3]

Physical duress, and
Economic duress"
Found here;

Duress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duress#In_contract_law)

You may have felt helpless, but his actions don't fall under duress.

Since this wasn't duress, and you did sign the document, I'm afraid you wouldn't get your money back. It would be very hard to prove that you were under duress when you signed. Sounds more like you signed it and then regretted it later.

Of course you can try and sue. Anyone can sue. But I doubt you'll win.

Good luck.

If you've given two weeks notice, you only have one paycheck left for him to dock your pay from. How much is he taking out?

Could I take him to small claims court for my money back?Hello r:

Nahhh... You'll NEVER convince a judge that he MADE you sign it.. NEVER!

excon