I don't honestly feel I owe them a penny, it would take a long time to explain however I personally made that company a fair amounts of profit and received no recompense in the form of commission or bonuses for a good year or more, just a whole lot of goal posts moving. In addition I simply wouldn't have been working for them if the weren't paying me that at the time because I would have looked elsewhere for a higher paid job without the retainer. Then without the threat of legal action I would never have stayed as long as I have I felt trapped.

Initially the sum of money was paid money along side my basic as a retainer, effectively a means of keeping the higher value sales people, tax was paid etc it was my wage in essence, it was changed when he produced this document months and months later, then tax stopped being paid and it was tallied up, shortly afterwards the money was stopped because it was claiming it as a loan and I didn't want to accrue any more. Does that help to explain the circumstance. I know I'm very stupid for signing in the first instance

In terms of do I think it's fair, not in the slightest. It's outrageous, I've been put through hell and high water while I was there and still he persues me!!! The so called agreement was a mixture of the company needing our help and entrapment to keep vital members of staff from leaving. All round an unpleasant situation to come back and bite me, particularly when I didn't want to sign it in the first place but was left with little choice. I felt that my options were sign it or you're out!!!! And in the economic climate we've endure for some time losing a job is a very bad situation to be in! Thanks

The so called 'agreement' is literally 3-4 lines long stating that i have an ongoing loan (which I'd been receiving for almost a year as a retainer, then asked to sign this agreement) will be repayable through bonuses or in full when leaving and that's it just a signatures and dates on letterhead, there really is nothing more. Granted emails have been sent but no terms, conditions or anything! At the time and for a period of a few months I received further payments however it soon stopped as he racked it up, sadly at the time I couldn't help but take the money because I needed it so badly! A fair proportion was taxed however some was just paid in to my account! So it really does worry me! Many thanks for your help so far folks

I'll try however I fear the old CAB are a bit of a nightmare to getr to speak to someone I will endeavour to do just that and see if they can help,thanks for your help borisbeaver

Hi, Thanks for getting back to me. The value is over £10K so it will end up in high court (I think) rather than small claims. As for the particulars, I may have misslead you slightly there hasn't been a court claim form recieved at present (I was under the impression that the solicitors sending me demands was pretty much the same as a court, however I've since found out this isn't the case) it's effectively a threatening letter from a solicitor that I must respond to. The court claim if you like I will no doubt receive in the post today/tomorrow. I'm really worried about putting too much specific detail on here in case prying eyes view it haha I fear I may be being a little paranoid Its based around commission/bonus being paided as a retainer that was then turned into a loan and a loan agreement was forced, well I say forced it was a case of sign it or else. there were no terms of repayment simply a case of repayable through future bonuses (none were received) or in full were you to leave the employ! Its a really sticky situation or is it? I am as legally minded as you're average lettuce I'm afraid!!! Many thanks

Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone can help me, I have recent left the employ of a company and started with another (I have not taken any business away from my previous employer and have no intention of doing so) and my previous employer has issued legal action against me. The demand is for a fairly sizeable sum of money which I have no way of affording and they are quite aware of this fact. The letter turned up almost a week later than it was dated and the corroborating documentation literally minutes prior to their imposed deadline. The demand has came about from a very dodgy agreement that was signed under duress a couple of yers ago, that was imposed to aid the company in securing a bank loan to further its growth. The situation is although the agreement would likely be thrown out of court due to its nature, my previous employer is exploiting the fact that I cannot afford to pay the legal fee's to fight him and he can easily fund solicitors until the sun comes up. I'm not able to get legal aid because my earning are deemed to be too high even though my personally circumstance dictate I have little chance of affording any legal help. I really don't know what to do and feel really rather lost, I've tried the CAB and was left waiting for hours and never saw anyone and I can't just take time off from my new job to wait for days to see someone. I've also spoken to a solicitor whom offered little help other than see what happens and that I have a good case to get it thrown out, however without the cash he's not going to be able to offer any further assistance. The situation simply appears to be that my pervious employer wants to contimue his torture due to some pleasure he derives from it. I can't put too much information on here because I don't know who is looking and just hope someone can help or at least point me in the right direction. Many thanks for any advice