[Tbaseflug]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Texas

I work as an independent IT sub-contractor for various clints. Recently, I was working for a client, directly under a manger who was responsible for approving of my timesheets. After the first two timesheets, she came to me and stated that she may not be in the office ever Friday to sign these and would I feel comfortable in her providing me with a series of copies, with her signature attached and that she would "trust me" to enter and submit my hours directly. She stated that as long as she received a copy of each timeshet, weekly and that I did not "abuse" the privelege, she trusted me and did not see any problems.

At first I balked but them saw that the timesheet was simply a box for the days of the week and for a box that said "employee signature" and then another for "manager's approval". At that point in time, I just thoguht to myself that it is not asking for her direct signature but rather her approval and whether she actually physicall signs them or just reviews and validates the "templates" that her direct authorization was valid either way.

We went down this path for 2 months, without issue or refutation and from my end continued to provide her with a copy and would email the sheet to the firm paying me and would receive payment without issue.

Long story short - the project missed its deadline - to no fault of my own, but the client became outraged and said that I did not do enough from my end to stop it from slipping. It was at that point that the client manager stated that she did not provide me with any presigned templates and that the work that I did for them did not add up to what she felt they received in turn.

I stated to her that if she was dissatisfied with the end-product, so be it, but that does not mean that it did not take me X amount of hours to complete the final end result.

The client is now saying that they feel that I overcharged them $4000 and that I forged her signature to obtain the funds and will look to press charges.

My reply was (beyond just being rediculous) was that if they felt that I had overcharged them, to please provide me with documentation stating that "here is why we feel we were overcharged" and I would in turn reconcile said documents with my own records and if I was in fact in error, would gladly reimburse the client - not in an omission of any form of guilt or wrong doing, but wanted to try and slavage the relationship or to prevent my reputation from being damaged, etc.

Question is - is there any suitable defense for my position on the client manager supplying me with presigned timesheets or will it come down to a he said Vs she said and I will lose?

Additionally, it should be noted that I never received payment directly from the client, but rather the staffing firm I went through. I did not sign any form of contract, with either party. The client was invoiced by the staffing firm - the client is refusing to pay the staffign firm for the $4000 hey say I overbilled - so how, if I never received payment from th client directly, can they even charge me with forgery, etc?

I am sure everyone says this, but I can honestly state that I did no wrong here and was perhaps just guilty of being too trusting and ignorant, etc,

[aaron]

An obvious first question - if she was supposed to be processing your claimed hours and turning in your timesheets directly, why wouldn't she have noticed that you were no longer submitting claims for hours worked?

If she did this with you, it is very likely she has done the same thing with others.

In any event, you post this in the criminal law section, suggesting a police report has been made. If that's the case, get a lawyer.