Sueing contractors for work not done

[entrochan.livejournal.com]

Last July, I gave a contractor a $4500 downpayment to re-do my front porch. He has yet to do the work, and attempts to get my money back have been futile. We went through a few months where he told me he would pay me back in installments (he'd had some money stolen from him by his kid, and being accomodating seemed like the better way to go), but I got a grand total of $200 this way. Then another few weeks of him promising to do the work. Nothing.

So it is time to take him to court. Does anyone know how to go about doing this? It's more than the small claims amount of $2000. It seems a bit straightforward to get a "real" lawyer involved. I've poked around on the somerville web sites and can't seem to find any real information.

Comments

[unferth.livejournal.com]

I am not a lawyer, but it sounds to me like you'd ultimately want to file suit under MGL chapter 93A, the Consumer Protection Act. That's assuming that there are no good non-court related options left to exhaust, of course. Apparently the Attorney General runs a mediation service for consumer-protection disputes (http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=1134) but I don't think they have the same ability to compel payment that the courts do.

http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/consumer.html has a bunch of good links, including http://www.neighborhoodlaw.org/page/56503&cat_id=69 - "Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices: What are Your Rights?"

There's a brief rundown of the law and some potentially-helpful phone numbers at:
http://www.massbar.org/lawhelp/legal_info/index.php?sw=3127&full_id=226

http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/forms.html#consumer gives an example of a thirty day demand letter, which is a necessary step before making a claim under chapter 93A.

I don't know exactly how to find out which court you'd make your claim in or what the paperwork for that is. My gut feeling is that any time you're going to "real" court rather than small claims court it's best to have a lawyer involved, but obviously people can and do represent themselves. Legal fees are recoverable as part of the lawsuit if you win, for what that's worth.