Small claims court questions

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Would it be advisable to call the other party first and notify them of my intentions to file a claim, giving them one last chance to pony up, or would it be better to just go ahead and file and let them find out when the statement of claim comes in the mail?

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no

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would a recorded phone call with him discussing what he owes me be admissible to back up my claim?

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that would turn the tables greatly.... against you

Let's say that I still have admin status of his business facebook account. Half of the under 100 likes are people I invited off my friends list who really don't gaf about his business anyway. Probably a bad idea to delete the people I know before I remove myself as admin, huh?

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Half of the under 100 likes are people I invited off my friends list who really don't gaf about his business anyway.

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no thats account tampering which you arent empowered to do even though you have the ability.

just mass message them all letting them know you are leaving with a brief explanation as to why and then its up to them to unlike and leave the group if they wish.

they may not care or they might leave, that is their decision to make, not yours

Gotcha. I haven't worked for this dude since before Christmas so anybody who knows me knows that by now. I tried to give him time because it's still a new business and I know thats a struggle, but now it's been over 3 weeks since I even heard from him. I built the Facebook page for him and it's been dormant since I quit, but I left myself as admin on purpose. I don't think he's even noticed, but I just figured if anybody said anything about me still having control of the page that I could just say I forgot about it

Facebook ??

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that would turn the tables greatly.... against you

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Explain yourself. Most states have a least a one party consent law.

Louisiana is a one party state.... one party consents then recording a conversation is legal. Might not be admissible in court but it's not gonna weigh against you.

well if you created it and he let it go unused since you left, then i guess you can just delete the group page and just be done.

he can then create his own group page without you being a part of it if he wants to.

but this all hangs on if its just a personal group page used as a business, or if it was a dedicated business page you created and operated for him, thats where it gets murky

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Would it be advisable to call the other party first and notify them of my intentions to file a claim, giving them one last chance to pony up, or would it be better to just go ahead and file and let them find out when the statement of claim comes in the mail?

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Depends on the issue. Based on the thread this seems to be some dispute over wages. I'd say the answer here is that it depends on the strength of your position and whether you would accept some type of partial payment.

I can also say that small claims courts look favorably on someone that tried to settle a claim before filing, and since small claims can be a craps shoot, any little tick in your favor helps.

You don't lose anything by notifying him in advance when you think about it. He will get the notice of claim well in advance of the date and will have plenty of time to consult a lawyer, counterclaim, etc or whatever it is you're worried that he'll do once he learns of the claim. But you also don't lose much by not telling him either. If he expects that he's in the wrong, he'll probably be just as willing to settle with you whether or not you give him advance notice.

The only risk you run of notifying him is if you think he'll just zero out his business account and shut down once he thinks you're filing against him. That's pretty unlikely but it definitely could happen.

Basically this is all to say that it's a judgment call on your part. If you think letting him know you're willing to file a claim will make him take you seriously and settle, it might be the right way to go. If you think he's just going to get pissed off either way, probably not worth notifying him in advance.

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Also, would a recorded phone call with him discussing what he owes me be admissible to back up my claim? I have other proof, that has his signature, but I'm still curious if that's allowed.

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It's small claims court, it's basically a coin flip as to what they'll let you admit into evidence. The court just does whatever they want in these things.