My employer did not pay me 9 months worth of overtime, so I got a lawyer and I sued them, we settled outside of court. ?
My employer did not pay me 9 months worth of overtime, so I got a lawyer and I sued them, we settled outside of court. My lawyers and theirs drew up an agreement that they will may me 35k in 3 payments that were to be due, December, January and February. They only sent the 1st one and since then have not given me the rest. In the agreement it was written I cannot contact them for any reason or sue them for anything else. What can I do do get the money that's rightfully mine? My lawyers said they have tried to contact them with no success and there is nothing more that can do.
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Did a judge sign off on this settlement? If so, you can enforce it just as if it were a regular court judgment (e.g. seize money from their bank account).
If it wasn't signed off by a judge, then you need to read the part of the agreement where it describes the recourse available when one party is in breech. You may have to end up suing them anyway. If that's the case, this prior agreement should be helpful evidence for your side of the case. Depending upon what the agreement says, your prior agreement to the reduced amount (if $35k was less than you originally asked for) is no longer at play and you would be free to demand your original amount.
you are not suing them for anything else, You are suing them for the same thing. THEY have breached the contract.
A COMPETENT lawyer would have insisted on an consent judgement. That means you present the settlement to the judge and the judge signs off as if they issued the agreement as the judgement of the court. Such judgements are legally enforceable like any other judgement. If you don't have such a judgement, your lawyer is guilty of malpractice.
Note: Any provision claiming you can't sue them for breach of the agreement containing said provision is NULL AND VOID on its face.
If your attorney was smart there is a provision regarding failure to pay within the agreed terms. Usually that provision is that you get a lien on the business by taking the agreement into Court to be ratified by a Judge.
Not suing them for anything else should only mean not suing them for anything else connected with your employment, not the recovery of the debt. Find another lawyer who is prepared to represent you in recovering the January and February payments or appoint a debt recovery company to send in bailiffs.
The have violated the agreement by not making the payments. You can take them back to court.
Contact them. It could be that the coronavirus shutdown is involved. Since they haven't lived up to their contract obligations you don't have to live up to yours.
Sounds like they made a deal with your lawyer and left you out. Now, you should ask the lawyer if the business is still operating or bankrupt. Ask him if the agreement is enforceable in court, i.e. bankruptcy court and why isn't it filed. It could be that your lawyer is letting you drag things out past the deadlines and so forth so that the business can avoid paying you. They see you as trusting and complacent and are taking advantage of you.
Tell your lawyer to take them to court to enforce the contract as agreed.