Thankfully, my receipt was witnessed and clearly spells out the agreement. It was a late Sunday afternoon when I looked at the bike and then made an offer which was accepted along with my good faith deposit, so setting up an escrow account was not possible nor was it thought of in advance. I returned with the certified bank check the next day, Monday and its dated and made out to her as agreed. The attorney says that although she has no doubt on who would win this case in court, she likely has no money or all of it tied up in the divorce case and courts. She asked me if I'd be willing to eat the 500.00 to settle and at least get my $2000.00 back or it may be a long time before I see anything if ever? Woman told my attorney that she would transfer the $2000.00 immediately or we could take it to court! I think she has me over a barrel. After paying the attorney the deposit alone to start the case, if I accept the deal and don't go to court, I'll be under water on the whole thing. Cannot collect back attorneys fees or anything. People can really suck....Might as well have opened the truck window and thrown the money in the air!

 

Seem like you just got screwed by not one, but two women............

 

Lol...starting to think that myself! In talking to a friend he said I should just take it to small claims and represent myself. I think you can only collect $1500.00 in small claims in Vermont? But I've lost more than that already soooo? I may just have to suck it up and realize some just know how to play the system, and some like myself just don't think that way? I like people.

 

I'd try to back door her with that agreement. Get her to send you the $2000 and then sue for the remaining $500. Although, if you sign some sort of agreement or commit to a verbal agreement then you are out of luck. You could always use non committal words like yes, this agreement may work, why don't you wire me $2000 as a sign of good faith?... Along those lines and then file a claim in small claims court. You never know, maybe she'll want to borrow money someday and can't because of the judgement.

 

That's an idea! Could work, Thanks! I sometimes wish my brain worked like some of the
scammers out there, then I could foresee and anticipate some of this ahead of time. Got friends who always say assume everybody is out to screw you and you'll usually come out ahead. To me that's an unfortunate way to have to live and not what I taught my children. Guess its just the times?

 

No, you had some hard luck with this one. Best wishes that it all works out in the end.

 

Follow your gut....You have all the opinions here you need....

 

The thing is, at least in Texas, is no judge will award legal fees. I was wrongfully accused in a frivolous dog bite case. Ultimately, I won in a jury trial but I was out about $8K in various legal costs. Lawyer says the court feels anyone has a right to bring a case to court, so defense costs are irrelevant.