Where’s My Money?

So you haven’t received payment for working a game and a reasonable amount of time has passed. What can you do?

First, make sure you know the funding source, mechanics of payment, timing of payment and terms of payment. No sense pursuing money from a school if the league is the payment source. Knowing the mechanics of payment can help track down where things might have gone wrong. Knowing timing and terms will help you avoid embarrassment of seeking payment when the contract specified it wouldn't be due for another three weeks.

Send an email or make a phone call to the athletic director or appropriate league o cial. Be polite. Be cordial. And be understanding. Just like with calls on the field or court, mistakes can happen. Hopefully, in both cases, they’re not frequent. And as the saying goes, you'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Yes, you're frustrated you’re having to take extra steps to get what’s owed for services rendered, but taking that out on the person might make them less inclined to be particularly helpful. Most issues can be resolved with a single reach-out.

But if that initial reach-out doesn’t get you anywhere, and a follow-up leads nowhere as well, it’s time to get your association or assigner involved. Let them know you’re having issues getting paid and ask if they can intervene on your behalf. Good associations have a sense of which buttons can be pushed and when to help get that check written.

If, after involving your association or assigner, you’re still not getting results, it might be time to escalate your concerns to a school principal, league governing body or state association. This is often best done by the association.

Finally, if you’ve tried everything else, small claims court is an option to consider as a last resort. The information you gathered in the first step — about the funding source, mechanics, etc. — will be needed for this stage. No lawyers are necessary and the filing fees are nominal. The average small claims court's jurisdictional limit is about $5,300, representing the maximum claim that can be collected. There’s a lot more time and e ort involved, so you’ll ultimately have to assess if it's worth it. But at the end of the day, only a court can order someone to pay.