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I am a Realtor. When I was first licensed I began working for a broker in Los Angeles, CA. After almost 2 years we had a dispute and he refused to pay me. It was at this time it was discovered that I never signed a broker/salesperson contract. I filed a complaint with BRE and a small claims case. I won the first case. He showed up with no contract. He appealed and showed up with a contract which was a photocopy and clearly fake.

How do I pursue him for forgery?

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  • Talk to the local police, and/or hire a lawyer. Dec 10, 2018 at 23:23
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    Did you point out the forgery during the appeal? Did you win the appeal? Also I was under the impression that appeals are only for errors of law; if he didn't have the contract the first time around, how come he gets to introduce it in the appeal? Also, if he introduced the contract as evidence then he would have had to testify that it was genuine, so that would be perjury. Dec 11, 2018 at 10:30
  • "When I was frost licensed " Do you mean "first"? Dec 11, 2018 at 17:21
  • How did the case proceed? Presumably, you asserted that it was a forgery, at which point the judge should have evaluated your claim. Dec 11, 2018 at 17:22
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    @Paul Johnson That is not true for CA small claims appeals, see this question Dec 12, 2018 at 1:40

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There is a bit of unclarity in relevant details in the question. There are two kinds of legal outcomes given the apparent scenario. One is that the broker might be criminally prosecuted for forgery, and possibly perjury. The premise here is that he forged a contract and your signature, and also used this as evidence in a legal proceeding. You would need to report the crime to the police, who would investigate and decide whether to recommend this to the prosecution for criminal charges. You have no role in this apart from reporting and testifying.

The other avenue is a lawsuit, to recover the money that you would be owed. Basically, it does not matter that you don't have a written and signed contract. I assume you don't mean that the guy never paid you in those 2 years; let's assume that he failed to pay on your last sale. You sue him for breach of contract. Then, there might be a dispute over what he was required to pay you, e.g. he maintains that it was supposed to be 3% and you maintain it was supposed to be 6%. Then the court will judge who is more believable.

A third option, for regulated industries, is to pursue an administrative complaint (e.g. with BRE), which it sounds like you already did. BRE has no power to compel him to pay you, but they might pull his license. If you didn't get satisfaction from BRE, then you would need to hire an attorney to sue him.

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