For the Fun of It - Small Claims for Artists and Freelancers

(my own experiences in the legal system)

I thought about changing the title of this article to “For the Fun??? Of it”…


This has been lurking in the background this year, but now that it's resolved, I finally feel like it's time to share our journey in the hopes that it can help someone else.

It's everyone's worst nightmare- you do a bunch of work, and then you don't get paid for it. That’s what happened to us earlier this year, in the midst of the industry slowdown. It was… not fun!

Freelancers can have it tough, as job relies on chasing down invoices and waiting out "net 30" (or worse- net 60!) periods. If you don't know, net 30 means you have to wait 30 days after sending your invoice to get paid.

But what can you do? You can't not accept clients for weird invoices or you probably will barely work for anyone (because so many companies have these practices). So you trust- and wait.

Earlier this year, my partner and I ran into a bad situation- a client had a long backlog of unpaid invoices, and had just lost their own big paying client. We sent one final demand letter for the money, and the company made it clear they weren’t going to pay. Ahh! It had been our sole income for months, income that we were relying on. How were we supposed to get our money back? It was a nightmare.

The Emotion of it all

First, you have to find your inner strength and be logical as you approach unpaid invoices. It’s easy for emotions to slip in (see above!) but the courts don’t run on emotion.

The advice I will give in this column is based on my experiences (a non-lawyer) in California specifically. Every country, state, and even city has different laws about suing someone, unpaid wage laws, and small claims limits.

So first you need to do a little research. What can you get? How long will it take? Are there any costs associated with filing?

You'll need to do some thinking about your will to fight. Navigating this all is supremely annoying, and as we'll talk about in the end, it sometimes means you'll still end up with nothing.

For us, the amount was big enough to fight in small claims, and even though we had to go through the whole process and couldn't get the whole amount we were owed (because Small Claims has a limit), that way, we did get paid something and that was very important to us.

Local Resources

First thing we did was call people we trusted for their thoughts. If you have a lawyer, manager, agent, or smart friend, you can check in with them to see if the case seems valid. You don't need legal advice quite yet, but it can help to not feel alone or crazy in suing someone.

Then, look up your local legal aid!!

These exist everywhere, and they were some of the kindest people to navigate the system. My only regret is not calling them right away. The court can't really help you except with certain forms things, so check in with legal aid. It’s FREE!

In LA, we have:

Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

Small Claims Advisor Service

If you were working full-time (on a contract), one good first step is filing a wage claim! You can do do it federally, or locally (in LA). Either way, it’s good to call and see what they can do.

A great resource is the Freelancers’ Union!! They have been trying to enact better laws around the US for freelance protections.

Find these resources for your particular area! Everyone we talked to was so helpful and kind to give us information, even if there’s very little they could do.

Why Small Claims and not a Lawsuit

Small claims has a maximum limit you can sue for (hence the name Small). In LA, this limit is $12500 for an individual, and $6250 for a business. If you’re a freelancer with an s-corp, that’s a pretty low limit in 2024!

A full lawsuit requires a lawyer (upfront $$) and time (in LA's case, we've heard it can take 1-2 years to resolve a lawsuit).

When you're dealing with a company that may be hoping to file for bankruptcy (which seems like because they are not playing their employees!!), you probably want it done as fast as possible. Small claims in LA can take a couple of months. In our case, it took about 4 months from start to finish. Still, ages, But we didn't have to pay for much up front. If we’d gone to regular court, we’d have to get a retainer fee, and, and wait for months and months for a date, and all the lawyering that goes along with a big trial.

So you've decided to sue in small claims, now what?

PREP and EVIDENCE GATHERING!

After you follow your local city's guide to filing you claim (and serving- I'll leave that for the experts to explain)…

You'll want to gather all your evidence. And I mean all of it. More cannot hurt. Screenshot! Print emails. If you have a company email or slack, grab as MUCH as you can before they remove you. Save it in multiple places! Then begin to put together a document of everything.

If you think about it, a judge is someone who doesn't know anything about your life or lob or what you do and why. You want to lay it all out as clearly as possible, with as much stuff to back it up, and specifics. A timeline helps, and dates that you tried to get your money back, and so on. Invoices!!! You can show it to a friend, too, and see if they have any questions after reading it. You want to leave no stone unturned, and no questions after reading it.

I made a google doc and added to it, making sure it read like a clear story from start to finish of what happened. I also bolded specific dates, and added a table of contents so it would be easy to find certain pages (the date the invoices were left unpaid, the date of hiring, and so on). If it seems like a lot, it's probably just the right amount. I wanted to make sure it was easy enough for a child to follow!

I cannot show the document but here’s the tabs! The document here ended up being about ~45 pages. Yours might be shorter, or longer! Make sure the images are big enough to see.

Ok now what?

Trial

Eeks! Here's the weird thing about small claims in LA- your trial is supposed to last 15 minutes!

That's why it's important your evidence is clear because you don't get a lot of time. They don’t cut it after 15 minutes, but they move quickly. We arrived at 830AM, I didn’t get our course seen until 1pm or so. Most of the day is waiting. You have to sit there while they go through all the cases. Honestly, it was interesting to sit in court and listen. I used to want to be a courtroom illustrator and probably still would if it wasn't such a tough career to come by now!

You need to be dressed presentably and act politely. One lady in front of us was wearing yoga pants and started stretching on the stand and the judge told her off.

In LA, you speak your case, the judge listens, asks you questions, and then… that’s it. you get the verdict by mail. I was a little sad because I was hoping the judge would bang their gavel. But it’s not Judge Judy (though you do have to call the judge Your Honor).

After the trial

In small claims, you're allowed one appeal. So if you get the verdict, it might be positive hooray!) but the other party still gets 30 days to appeal.

Let's say all that went well and you won, definitively!! You get all your money handed to you right that day and also a big box of chocolates and flowers!

Just kidding, you get a piece of paper that says they owe you money. And then the real work begins. You now have to find out how to get their money (if they have any). LA has a helpful guide here, but you can see how even after a judgment, collecting on it is not easy either. It is easiest if they just pay the court, but a lot of people will just... not. And say you're suing a business! You can't garnish their wages, and if they file for bankruptcy, well, forget about it!

If the person you're suing has property, one of the easiest ways to collect is to put a lien on their property. But you have to know what property they have. There are collection agencies, too, but they cost money!

We were lucky that the defendant in our case chose to pay the court (not all the money, but at least the money we could have gotten from the small claims process). If you're suing someone without a tangible way to find them, it might be a lot harder to get any of your money- even after the court says you're owed it. Which leads me to the final takeaway.

The End

Early on in the process, my dad gently reminded me to be careful to not let this process take away my life and my hours. I was definitely hyper-fixated on it. It's very emotional, and frustrating to see someone try to take advantage of workers, in such a cruel way.

But the reality of the justice system in many places is that it's slow and there's only so much they can do to get your money back. Sometimes you have to let go- whether it's letting go of the full amount to sue in small claims to avoid the hassle of suing in Supreme Court, or whether it's chosing to not sue at all. After going through this process, I'm not sure if I would sue over 500$- it's a lot of time and emotional energy. It worked out for us here, but it drained a lot of energy.

My other takeaway is to be very careful as a freelancer about what your legal limits are when it comes to unpaid invoices. In LA, the limit is $12500 for small claims, but it's halved for businesses. If you let invoices pile up in excess of that amount, it becomes much harder to get that money back.

Anyway, I hope this was helpful or interesting. If you've ever gone through it, let me know how it was for you! I was so grateful for the help and knowledge of some friends who shared their experiences with me, and I hope this helps you too and makes it less scary.

The process of gaining better rights for freelancers is a slow one. Right now a lot of industries are going through tough times, and you have to be wary and on your guard for small companies that might be in rougher financial shape than they want to let on. If they are delaying paying you, or saying money is just around the corner, it's time to start collecting evidence, just in case. Hopefully you don’t have to sue like we did, but if you do, you’ll be ready!

Anyway with our judgment money, we're mostly paying off all the debt we accumulated not getting paid for 3 months, but we're also buying some FROU FROU joy stuff. :) It was a tough process, but we survived. Hooray!

I think I mentioned Warrior Art painting a couple weeks back BUT I just signed up or Laura Bifano's class because I'll be done with my ECE cert in just a few short weeks. I love learning!!!! I think after that I'd like to take some sort of graphic novel structure class. I got this awesome rec from a friend, but any more are highly appreciated!

ok love u bye