Unpaid Wages and Unreachable Ex-Employer

My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: California

In late November 2011, I was hired by a small start up business that wholesaled a specific range of products. My boss told my coworker and I that he could not pay us any more until he could sell more product to make money in order TO pay us early January 2012 so we stopped going to work because he had told us we didn't have to. He had told us that worst case scenario was that if he couldn't sell anything and he would use the rent money that he gets from his tenants (he rents out rooms in his house and office space) to pay us. He said he would keep in contact with us and that we could contact him to check in on his progress.

A week later, I text and call for updates. He says he might have something that Friday. I call and he doesn't pick up, then he calls back later and says it fell through and tells me again that worst case scenario, he'll use the rent money to pay us. At this point, he owes us about 3 weeks' worth of pay which is at least $900 + mileage and a few hours of overtime.

My ex-employer is also a painfully difficult person to get a hold of - he's terrible at answering every form of communication possible. A little over 2 weeks now at the end of January and my coworker and I cannot get a hold of him. His phone's been disconnected (there is a message that says the phone doesn't take incoming calls) and we have no way of reaching him. I have no idea what to do. He has our time sheets (there are 2 pages - page 1 has his signature; page 2 doesn't). My friend and I went to his house to see if we could talk to him, which I knew where it was because he ran his business there so my coworker and I worked there. One of his tenants let us in and tried to get him to talk to us, but the tenant didn't get any answer to his knocks even though we saw my ex-employer's car outside.

My coworker's mom advised us that we should file a suit in small claims, but I'm not even sure if we have a case. She also said we couldn't sue him together, which I'm not sure about either. I'm just very unsure of what to do and if I can even do anything. All I have are our time sheet pages (the ones he didn't sign) and text messages asking if he has any updates + the few replies he actually sent. I know I should have solid evidence, but I don't and I'm of course very frustrated because of all the work my coworker and I put into helping him with the start up company (driving around promoting for him, designing a business site, etc).

My questions are is there anything I can do and if so, what? If it's filing a suit, is it possible for me to win and what can I do to ensure that I get my money? And lastly, is there any advice you can give me to prevent a situation like this again? (ie. What documentation I should always have a copy of in a new job, etc.)

Thank you!

The correct and appropriate thing to do is to file a claim with the CA DLSE.

If he fails to show at the conference/hearing and I 'win,' will the DLSE enforce my right to be paid and I will get paid?

It will sure try.

Please understand this is your best legal recourse. If you file a claim and you win, you will probably get your money. If you don't file a claim, you won't get your money (no probablies about it). Your choice.