In the past, I've always been on the attorney's payroll.  I actually worked for an attorney that thought paying his abstractors was the last thing he needed to do.  But the abstractors always had me to fight for them, so he'd pay, but it was always 60 to 120 days out. 

I became and independent contractor last year, and have worked mostly for TC's that always pay.  This attorney was actually a friend of mine that contracted me to do all this work.  I worked for her for 6 months, then got pneumonia, and was out of work for about 3 weeks.  I decided that working for her was too stressful, and I'd rather not get sick again with all the messy searches she needed done, and sometimes driving 400 miles a day to record for her.  My last billing was for February and March.  I've been as friendly as I can be.  I emailed her after that 40 mile round trip to her office yesterday to end up with nothing.  She said that she didn't have the money to pay, and she'd send me a check when she did.  I replied that she's had over 3 months to get the money together and I needed to be paid now. 

She's not in a temporary jam, she's made bad investments with her clients, hired more staff, etc.  She just does not want to pay the invoice.  I really need the money right now!

I know some other abstractors were going to file complaints with the NC State Bar about my former boss.  Did any of those complaints help?