Location: Washington state.
I have a company and around a year ago I got a letter saying someone we hired got laid off and we owe him unemployment but we never had that guy as an employee so they told us to fill out some forms that it was mistaken company and we thought that was the end of it but now some agent of the court served us papers that we now owe $11,000 because apparently the guy sued us we had no idea we were being sued so he automatically won the lawsuit because we didn’t go to court. What are my options now? We never had him as an employee. It’s a small company, I can’t afford to pay the $11,000 and I don’t want to pay thousands for a lawyer which I also can’t afford over a lawsuit against the wrong person
Comments
This sounds like a scam. You should be able to pull court records to verify if you were truly sued. If you were, you may be able to vacate the judgement by arguing improper service.
First, verify via the courthouse, there was a lawsuit. Independently verify by using Google or something to call the court house. Don’t use the number on the document until you confirm it’s legitimate.
Assuming you were never properly served, you’ll need to hire an attorney to file a motion to set aside the judgment due to lack of service.
What’s your business insurance situation? A lawyer and representation be covered in certain cases. It would be worth talking to your insurance agent.
In a lot of states there is a fraud exception for getting a judgment set aside. That’s an option if the service argument fails. In any event you entered an area where you need an attorney to resolve this as this isn’t something that is realistic to take on as a do it yourself project.