Settlement Rejection

[burnedtwice]

Good Evening,

Last month I sent a collection notice to a company for an unpaid, 5 month overdue bill. In the certified letter I stated that I had to be paid for my services no later than a certain date to avoid going to court over this. They company is an LLC, I am a sole proprietor without an attorney on retainer. In addition, the sum is for around $2,500.

I am not worried about winning the case as I have plenty of documentation showing that I am owed the money. In addition, the company is making money so I am not worried about collections.

My problem is, through a lot of back and forth, I finally accepted an offer for 50% of what was owed. HOWEVER the person still did not pay by the due date! I never changed the due date nor was I ever asked to extend the payment date.

Because I will be awarded significantly more in the court case (100% more to be exact), I am not worried about having to pay the defendant's legal bills for rejecting the settlement.

My question is (and it may sound stupid), but is not paying by the due date ample reason to reject the settlement offer especially because it was so low? I gave the person a significant discount and they still did not take it!

Thanks!

Burned Twice

 

[dee_dub]

My problem is, through a lot of back and forth, I finally accepted an offer for 50% of what was owed. HOWEVER the person still did not pay by the due date! I never changed the due date nor was I ever asked to extend the payment date.

That's only a problem is you really really want to uphold the settlement.

Because I will be awarded significantly more in the court case (100% more to be exact), I am not worried about having to pay the defendant's legal bills for rejecting the settlement.

You shouldn't be worried about that anyways. In small claims cases, parties almost always bear their own legal costs. The only way you could possibly be liable for the other party's costs is if the agrement provided that you were to be responsible for their costs. (But even if it did, since they have breached the agreement, it's unlikely you'd bear their costs anyways.)

My question is (and it may sound stupid), but is not paying by the due date ample reason to reject the settlement offer especially because it was so low? I gave the person a significant discount and they still did not take it!

It would have been a reason to reject the settlement offer, back before you accepted it. But you've now accepted the settlement offer and reached an agreement. You can't now say "it was too low, so no deal". People settle for less than the full amount owed all the time, for various reasons.

What you CAN say is, "we had an agreement, you were supposed to pay by Date X, and you didn't. You breached the agreement, and the agreement is terminated". And then you sue them for the full amount. That depends on whether this "due date" was a term of the agreement or not. Where did this date come from? How could you prove they agreed to it?