My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Colorado
I have been involved in running daycare centers for almost 20 years and the last 10 of that I have ran my brothers daycare. He had won a substantial amount of money 13 yrs ago and decided to build his own with my help. I was never put on the corp as an owner or anything but ran the operation up until about 30 days ago when he terminated me. Naturally, all daycare centers are hurting these days and I believe my brother was somewhat using me as a scapegoat for his frustrations. My salary was 6 figures and I know the cash flow crunch was causing him to dig into his own pocket.
Anyways, upon termination we both signed an agreement that he would continue to pay my salary as severance through 12/31/2010. This was a legal document to the best of my knowledge. This week he called to let me know there was no way he could afford to pay me through the end of the year. My question is don't I have a binding contract that requires him to pay me? I could certainly see if our agreement was verbal but this was a legal document and no where does it say he can just renig anytime he wants to.
I understand he may not want to dig into his own pocket but he's reaped the benefits of owning the business in all the good times and now he doesn't want to take responsibility when we hit hard times. Either way I just want some confirmation that I have a great case here should I need to hire a attorney. I need my paycheck so I'm assuming I'll need to spend a pretty penny on a retainer to take something so simple in front of a judge.
Please Advise...... Thanks.

