[questions987]

Does anyone have any information on how we can collect a debt from someone, specifically military.
The amount isn't really even enough to take to small claims court ($500), but its the principle of the matter. I'm wondering if I can go to his chain of command for help?

I don't really need or want the money, but I think its wrong that I've been treated this way so I want what's owed to me by this person. I want all ties gone and usually I walk away and chalk it up to a loss but this time I'm pissed off so I'm getting what's mine.

[HERMIT]

I think before anybody can give advice, it would be helpful to know the circumstances of the debt owed and documentation you have. Was a it a check they bounced to you? Was it a personal loan you gave out? And if the latter, do you have some kind of IOU or some manner of signed agreement for repayment? First and foremost, so long as you have some kind of documentation in which you can build a case against this person, the better your chances are at possibly getting restitution.

[questions987]

I paid for their car to be fixed. I have a vm where they promise repayment. Credit card statement, recipet from dealership.

[PoppinBC]

I paid for their car to be fixed. I have a vm where they promise repayment. Credit card statement, recipet from dealership.

Approach them, if they continue to refuse, then find out who his superior officer is, closest one in the chain of command. If that person is not helpful, then work your way up the ranks; with documentation like that, I'm pretty sure the first officer you talk to will do some butt-whooping.

[HERMIT]

A most concise, or 'by-the-book', approach is to serve your debtor notice by way of a notification letter that is sent by certified, return receipt mail. In your notice, be sure to summarize to them the circumstances of the debt incurred, how much is still owed you, that you have voicemail evidence of their original assurance to pay, and specify or offer a reasonable time framework in which you expect the entirety of the debt to be repaid. Reiterate that this is of importance to you, but at the same time do it in a business-like and non-threatening manner. To be thorough, include photocopies of the credit card receipt and the dealership work order.

The rationale in doing this is that you are preparing and providing yourself evidentiary 'firepower', if you will, should it be deemed necessary to have to take this case to smalls claims court. (I know you personally feel the monetary amount is too small to justify taking it to small claims, but nonetheless, that is what it is there for - for people such as yourself to be able to seek compensation/justice for damages up to $7500 (I believe).)
In mailing out the notice, you basically lay the groundwork indicating that you at least in good faith tried to recoup your money from your debtor and offered up some sort of repayment arrangement with him/her. The key point here is that you have sent that notice certified/return receipt. By virtue of you getting back the return reciept with their signature on it serves as proof that the debtor received your letter and at the very least implies knowledge of you attempting to recoup your money back from them (read: now they can't claim that they 'didn't know you really wanted the money back'). Now, should the letter in whole get sent back to you as "bad address" or some other odd reason, even that in itself is admissible evidence indicating that you at least tried to contact the person to recoup your money.

While sending a letter might seem to be too much fluff and trouble, it does serve the all-important purpose of boiling down the situation to what it really is: the person owes you money and that is what you expect. In absence of that, you leave yourself open to a he said/she said battle. After all, what do you have but just a credit card receipt with your name on it and a dealership work invoice with their name on it (since it's their car). The debtor play it off like it was their (mis)understanding that you 'gifted' them the money and paid for the bill 'out of the goodness of your heart'. The voicemail of them indicating that they would pay you back, while seemingly strong evidence against their case, may not be as strong as you would like because for lack of telling you when they'll pay you back (presuming this might is the case), they can still possibly argue that they didn't know when you really wanted the money and perhaps imply that you didn't seem to really hound them too much for it anyway.

Well, this is why you send the certified mail notice outlining the situation to them: you take away any outlet for excuses that they can muster up.

Since your situation happens to deal with military personnel, it seems that you might be able to circumvent the court process. Approaching the debtor's higher-up in the military sounds like an innovative and possibly more productive course of action. When your certified letter is sent, it can result in a number of different outcomes:

1. They receive it, message is received loud and clear, and they try to work with you in trying to repay you in whole or partially in installments. Case closed. (But if they should default on their arrangement with you, the whole process simply starts over again for whatever the remainder that they owe you).
2. They receive the letter and disregard or fail to timely act on it. But, you do have their signature on the return receipt for having received the notice.
3. You receive the letter and return receipt as "bad address" or perhaps it wasn't accepted.

Should it come down to 2 or 3, locating and approaching the debtor's superior officer to respectfully discuss the situation with all your evidence in hand may be more constructive than going through the motions of filing a small claims action against them in court. Given the military's desire to adhere to their code of honor, I'm sure that the superior will not take your situation lightly so long as you have the specific evidence well-laid out for them to consider. Again, the key thing is that you have that certified letter as part of your documentation - because if it turns out that #2 is the result, it makes the debtor look bad in the eyes of his superior. And, if the result is #3, then the superior would not only have the means to deliver the message for you, he would know about the situation too and this would force the debtor to take you more seriously.

But, should you not be able to try the commanding officer route, at least you are rest assured that you can still take recourse via the small claims court route.

Here are a couple of links that I suppose might help you in this regard:

Small Claims Court Basics
Filing Small Claims Online

[questions987]

Hermit - you are amazing. Thank you for your advice - now how would a guy that hangs out at Hometown Buffet on a regular basis be so smart? I think you're one of those lawyer types that plays dumb.

Anyway - You know how things are clearer in the morning? It works in the afternoon for me. So I'm wondering, on a side note - now that i knwo what actions I can take against him. What everyone would recommend I do?

Here's the whole story:

This person is the person that I had feelings for a few months ago and when things were at their best - his car died. As a result, he needed to fix it and didn't have the money to. The sum to fix his car is a weeks' worth of shopping for me in clothes and I easily spend half of that on dinner so really - 500 wasn't that much to me. I offered him the money on loan to pay back at his convienance. That was November.

On Christmas eve - we called it off and he called me that night stating that the money he owed me would be paid back when he had the money. With time - everything heals and we stated that we were good again and we would be friends. In the spirit of friendship - I let the money go. As time progressed, what he refered to as friendship was a simple hello at the bar when I saw him. We never really talked, never hung out, I was finding this out about him through other people in passing. When I confronted him about those things - he denied them all. I called him at the begining of January to ask him if he could pay me back in February. He stated that he didn't think so and would pay me back when he had the money. Again, in the spirit of friendship I let it go.

This past week, he made an attempt at being a "friend" and we went out to dinner. During this dinner the conversation progressed to my relationship with another person that was in the same social circle that we both were in. While he isn't friends with the guy, he knew him. I told him that I was talking to this guy - but I later found out that this guy was talking to another "friend" of mine so I backed off. I asked him to not say anything to anyone because it was just a conversation and it wasn't worth ruining a new relationship over. The following night - I got a phone call from this "friend" asking me what happened between this guy and me. She told me that Dave told her that she should call me and ask what happened. She was upset and assuming that I went behind her back and was doing something shady. I explained to her that I talked to this guy, I point blank asked him if he was dating anyone, he said no. I found out from her that they were talking the following day, so I backed off. She and I came to the conclusion that the guy wasn't worth it - nothing was going on between them and any chance was over long before she found out about me. She just didn't want to risk being friends with someone that would go behind her back and she wanted to make sure that i wasn't going behind her back.

After I talked to her - I called him to confront him about what he did. I told him that I understood his reasoning for telling her about that other guy and myself. I was okay with her finding out about it, but that I didn't appreciate him throwing me under the bus. That it told me he didn't respect my friendship and he should have known me well enough to tell me that I needed to talk to her and known that I would have. At least warned me that he was going to tell her instead of throwing me under the bus like that and pulling the rug out from under me. He responded with "Sorry I hurt your feelings but I don't understand why you're upset." and that was that.

Earlier this week - I found out from another friend that he got a promotion to Sgt., which was very important to him. This friend that told me - said that he sent her a text to tell her. They have not talked for 2 months, she doesn't even consider him a friend. He didn't even text me to tell me. I know it's petty but it hurt that he didn't even text me when he considered me a "good friend" even a "best friend". I waited like 2 days and mulled it over, giving him the chance to tell me later on. It spoke volumes to me that he didn't even tell me, and I interpreted as him not even considering me a friend. I sent him a text basically saying "congrats on making sgt, thanks for telling me." I got no response. Last night we were at the bar - he walked in, greeted everyone else, and ignored me the whole time. He even went as far as telling everyone that I was mean to him and didn't deserve his attention.

Now I'm pissed off. It's 500.00 - thats nothing to me. The sum is a big sum, but in all honesty - I was just going to let it go and not even ask for it back when we were still friends. I was going to pretend that it didn't exist and just not care. But Im angry, and I'm hurt - so I want to hurt him in some way. It's vengeful, and vindictive - I understand that. I'll feel guilty for it, but I still think that after 3 months of putting up with him and his crap, after being thrown under the bus by him - I deserve what's mine - even if it does hurt him (financially or career wise). I know, and understand that 500 dollars to him is like 5000 to me. I however, don't care at this point. But that person that once loved him - deep down feels bad and doesn't want to do this - however, the person that was hurt by him - wants him to not pay me back or respond to the letter so that I can go to his CO and get him in trouble.

What would you do in my shoes?

PS - sorry it's so long!