[Dani Braun]

I am an independent contractor for a medical transcription service. The woman who owns the service that I do most of my work for ALWAYS pays late and I have had several of her checks bounce. She always blames it on something, i.e. her bank messed up her account, oops, she forgot to mail the checks, etc. Since she is not our "employer" but just uses us for contract work, do we have any recourse here? We are supposed to be paid on the 5th and the 20th of each month. I have worked for this service for a year now and have yet to see a check on time. She used to at least MAIL them on the 5th or the 20th but now she almost never does. If I get another check that bounces, I am going to call the police to see if they have any ideas of what I can do. I need some advice here.
Thanks. Dani

[Fr_Chuck]

Ok, her pay dates are merely her estimated date to issue checks.

You are merely a company doing business with another company, and welcome to the real world on how that works, she could wait 90 days to pay, this is often the case in large companies. If she just does not pay you, you would have to sue her in civil court for the money she owes you.

She may give estimated days, but unless it is in your contract with her to pay on those days, with a penalty if she does not, then she has no real obligation to do so, if she does not want to. Now you would have the right to sue her if she did not ( and it was in writing those were days she would issue a check.

But for example when our company does work for company X. We bill out the work we do every 2 weeks. It is anywhere from 30 to 90 days and once in a while longer before we get paid for the services we bill.

There are even companies in business that buys accounts payables, for other companies, they pay you slightly less than you would collect, and then they wait to collect on accounts recieveable, that is how long many businsses are in paying.

Now on the bad checks, if she does not make them good at once, you can turn them over to the court and press charges against them.

My question is after the first late pay, and the first bad check, why are you still working for them??

[Dani Braun]

Thanks for answering. In answer to your question as to why I am still working for her, I am not. I was shown the dates in writing as to when I would be paid, but I don't believe I ever got a copy of that paper. I have talked to a few of the other girls that work for her and no one has a copy of that paper. We were all told and shown, but never received anything we could use. She supposedly had the check in the mail on Sat, 3-4-06. When I had not received my check by Wed, 3-8-06, and the other girls had received theirs, I called her. I got her answering machine, as usual. I left the message that I had still not received my check. I suggested she call or email me so that we could meet. I never heard from her. Imagine that. Today I learned that she SAYS that she got my check returned to her from the post office because she had put some wrong numbers in the address. I don't believe that. I live in a small community. The people at the PO know me. They delivered my 1099's from her, also late, and she had put the wrong street number AND the street name was badly misspelled. I talked to the postmaster and she didn't believe that they had returned any mail addressed to me. It has to go through her so she should know. MY ex-user supposedly mailed my check again today. We will see. Again, thanks for answering.
Dani

[Fr_Chuck]

Why did you not just go pick it up , if it been returned to her, if she had it in her hand, at the time you were talking to her.

But even my company does not pay contractors on any set schedule. I have one who sends his statement in every week. For example, the pay was suppose to have been sent out on the last Friday of last month, it did not get mailed till the 3rd of this month and did not reach the one contractor till the 11th of this month.

[ScottGem]

Don't bother going to the police. They can do nothing since this is a civil not a criminal issue. In the absence of a contract that specifies when payments will be made, you have little recourse.

If you haven't gotten paid for work you have done, you could try contacting your local labor board. You might have to go to small claims court to recoup.

For future reference, you should get a written contract spelling out the terms, payment schedule, etc. I always invoice my clients. I sometimes include a terms advisory. Something like payment due within x days. You can even add a penalty. After x days a x% late charge will be due.

[Dani Braun]

Father Chuck,
First of all, I almost NEVER get to talk to her. She told her office manager to contact me to tell me that the check to me had been returned and she had sent it out again. She didn't offer to have me come and get it. She never does. She won't even call me.

ChuckGem,
Yes, I have called a lot of people around here to see if there was anything that I could do. Most of them told me that I would have to go to small claims court. I have never had this problem with anyone concerning payment before. I guess I have been lucky. From now on, my invoices will definitely have a late charge and everything will be spelled out.

Thanks to both of you. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I have been a little busy and not online very much. You have both helped me a lot.
Dani Braun

[ScottGem]

Glad to have assisted.