ex employer is requesting H1B visa fees back, filed small courts claim and intimidates me

nyjob

New Member
I worked for a start-up company A 5 years ago on H1B visa, at will full time contract as filed with DOL. I left after 3 months for a number of reasons, including company A requiring to sign another contract after I joined that would include a long non compete clause that I was not aware of before hand.

I recently started working for a company B at a senior level that somehow got attention of my ex-supervisor from company A (that has done well over years). I got a demand letter from their lawyer asking me to pay back H1B fees and interest for 5 years as I "defrauded them 5 years" ago, and shortly after they filed a claim in NY claims court (I tried to negotiate and pay some small amount to settle, they refused and wanted it all). In addition, lawyer from company A called corporate lawyer from my current employer using my mistake of replying to him from corporate email (I was trying to reason that by law H1B fees are to be paid by employers). And in addition, I got a rather intimidating and somewhat harassing (but well legally drafted to hide that) letter from company A boss.

Company A is known to pursue litigation in its normal course of business all the time, I feel that head of company A is personally trying to bully me into paying and has plenty of financials and legal resources to just make his point before stature of limitations runs out (6 years). In the latest email from company A they said that they will argue that I defrauded them into applying for H1B visa while I had pre-conceived pland to leave for another job 3 months after as "they wasted time and money on H1B visa passing on qualified US applicants".

What should I do if I feel that they are trying to intimidate me (especially after calling my current employer) and that they have no case/clause to be asking me to pay anything with respect to H1B visa fees. I have all contracts and written evidence that upon me leading they had no issue with my job performance thus can not ask for liquidation damages. Do I need to go to small claims court or can I contact any government agencies to help with me either fees claims or intimidation so what they stop going after me?

Also, what happens to my records if I go to small claims court and lose - does it impact my credit history and future background checks?

Thanks
 
The only way to fight back a lawyer is to hire even a better lawyer. My friend, you cannot do this by yourself and there is no government agency to help in such matters. If you think you have such a good case, then, it will not cost you anything since if they lose they will have to pay your attorney fees, but if you think you have a chance to lose, then, you need to ask yourself how much is the payment they are asking and what will it cost you to fight it.

If this matter is resolved legally, it will not have any impact on your background check but if they keep pursuing it and you refuse to fight back, it will show up somewhere.

Your credit history is unrelated to these civil disputes.
 
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