Small Claims Court: usually limited to 2-3k, so you're giving up 7-8k, AND you have to spend your time in court. Doesn't seem like a wise expenditure of time versus revenue given the other options.
Lawyer Letter: TJIC's suggestion is a very good one. However he's already sent them a copy of the legal contract the company signed, so it's possible this could likely be a waste a few hundred bucks of attorney fees. If he tried this, and they continued to ignore him, would a collections agency be a logical next step? If not, what would?
Social Engineering: Frankly it sounds like the new CEO isn't going to say "Oh you're going to fly here, man I better cut a check quick". So you're probably out a plane ticket a day of work.
The last thing a small business needs to do is to have a key person wrapped up for hours/day/weeks trying to recover money from a clearly uncooperative/belligerent person. They need to find the best balance of revenue versus time spent. After the threatening legal letter (which is sort of dick-ish I guess), I think a collections agency is the next logical step.
Just a reminder: look upthread, it's not "2-3k"; in many of the places you're likely to be doing business, it's over $7k; the mean is ~$6k, the median is $5k. Yes, MA is $2k. That sucks.
Lawyer Letter: TJIC's suggestion is a very good one. However he's already sent them a copy of the legal contract the company signed, so it's possible this could likely be a waste a few hundred bucks of attorney fees. If he tried this, and they continued to ignore him, would a collections agency be a logical next step? If not, what would?
Social Engineering: Frankly it sounds like the new CEO isn't going to say "Oh you're going to fly here, man I better cut a check quick". So you're probably out a plane ticket a day of work.
The last thing a small business needs to do is to have a key person wrapped up for hours/day/weeks trying to recover money from a clearly uncooperative/belligerent person. They need to find the best balance of revenue versus time spent. After the threatening legal letter (which is sort of dick-ish I guess), I think a collections agency is the next logical step.