[Henry17]

Since from what I'm reading you have ruled out violence I don't believe you have many options. I have been in a similar boat twice ($9k in 94 and $58k in 98) and I had to write both of them off.

With a local guy you want to make sure he is laying off to someone further up the food chain. I found a guy in 98 who adheres to this strictly and have not had an issue since. The worst he has done is show up 2 hours late once.

In 98 I let it go because I was still in law school and still not sure about a lot of things. If that situation happened now I wouldn't hesitate. My response would be to start with property damage and then progress to physical harm. If he has any ability to pay he'll pay up as soon as he realizes you are serious but odds are you'll get very little if any of it.

The only way I'd consider removing violence from the table is if the guy was laying off to someone who got busted and I could independently confirm that.

Think of it this way if you lost and didn't pay what do you think he'd do to collect?