Basically, nothing. It's his responsibility to collect, court won't collect for him. If you don't pay him, he would be able to have marshal or sheriff put a lien on your house or bank account, confiscate your car, etc. But he would need to know where you bank or where your car is parked, etc. If you don't have any property, or if he can't find it, he just wasted his time. In other words, if you sue someone in small claims court, it's a good idea to find out how you will collect payment first, if the defendant doesn't pay. If you have property that could be confiscated, you can protect it by setting up an irrevokable trust.
No such thing as debters prison any more fordP. If he wins is called a judgment. If you don't pay and he knows what he's doing (maybe, but unlikely) there are two things he can do. The first is put a lean on a posession, like a car. The other is he can sell it to collectors and that will be annoying. The court can't make you pay, it can find you in contempt if you don't since it's a Judges order and I'm not even sure if that is accurate. Bottom line is, don't miss the court date because you won't get another chance.
I agree with the rest of the group. This guy sounds like a nut case. Is he suing for the return of the $600, or is it more than that? If he had a legitimate attorney set up the suit, it's already cost him more than $600. Are you sure the suit is on a legal document and was properly served? Sounds more like he is just trying to spook you into giving him his money back. A guy called me last year in September. He said he had 140,000 products sitting in warehouses ready to ship and his web developer reneged on an agreement to develop his web site. He says he is looking for a web developer to partner with him for a 5-year commitment where the developer would get 25% of the profits in exchange for web development services. He was not offering any cash payment of any kind, just an offer to share the profits, if any. Oh, and the site had to be up in a month for the Christmas rush. After asking a few questions, it was easy to determine that he had no products at all, but was just getting into affiliate marketing and needed a partner to build a site. I told him he should have called in January, but no one in their right mind would sign a 5-year commitment based upon what he had to offer. He reiterated that he had a developer, but the developer could not deliver, so he was planning to sue him. I asked him what basis he had for a law suit for a business where the developer has received nothing in the form of compensation, but was expected to do almost all of the work. He arrogantly responded, "Breach of contract." I said, "Lots of luck. You haven't paid him anything and you haven't lost anything." I told him that there wasn't a chance in hell that anyone could get the site up before Christmas, and he would have to pay for services to try to get it done. He then responded, "Hey, I worked for the government for 25 years. I know how to get things done." I told him that he wasn't saying anything to convince me that he could get anything done." He then hung up. Kinda sounds like a nut case from the same mold. I think you are in a good position to beat this guy. That is, if his law suit is legitimate. His age and the miliary should not have any impact on the outcome.
I'm not Law student but I was in Mock Trial for about 4 years and picked up on a few things. I also haven't read the full thread just skimmed places so I wanted to offer my opinion. Sounds like that contract he wrote completely voids the initial $600 he paid you. So I would have nothing to worry about. Do not waste money on a lawyer etc. If you do end up going to court dress professionally and make sure to take EVERY document you have, printed and readable. Present your case and make sure to have any details that can show what your opposition is trying to do, claim funds from a previous project that was completed, etc. Just because he is in the Military doesn't mean anything really, if he's smart he'll be wearing his Military clothing to show credibility, but hey, you have documents showing that he said all previous work does not count so he can wear a judge costume if he wants. As long as his signiture is on that, case closed.
Yes, but are emails, (or electronic records), considered at all? In the UK they cannot, (in most cases), even be entered as evidence. Unless you can prove, (on the day), that they are real, then they could be rejected by the sitting judge. In a small claim court a judge is not going to subpoena ISP records and so on, he will just throw the lot out as inadmissible. I guess what I am saying is that you should not rely 100% on electronic evidence, 'cause if the judge dismisses them then you will have nothing to show. Furthermore, the other guy could _tell_ the judge to reject them because they are not accepted within your jurisdiction. If he is clever he will only ask the judge to do so once you verbally agreed that there was a job done for $600.00. In that case the judge will know about the $600.00 but not about the rest of the story and might award it to the other party. Again in the UK, the judge can throw what ever he wants out of court and there isn’t much you can do about it, (trust me, they know ther law better than you), so you should be prepared in case one or more pieces of your case are rejected. Never argue with a judge that rejects your evidence, but you can ask, (once), why the evidence was not accepted. I know that the US and the UK are different, but seen that the US legal system is loosely based on the UK, the same kind of rules probably apply. FFMG
By the way the collection laws vary by states. In some states a small claims verdict or any normal court judgement for that matter can be uncollectable. In some states only certain actions can result in a lien being put on property (ie a loan against the property or some kind of improvement on a home or automobile could get a lien on a property). Some states you can place a lien on property for a regular judgement, others you can't, and they have little if any recourse to collect.