I can tell you from personal experience that this is almost impossible to fight and trying to apply rules that are familiar in any other civilized country in the world, is foolhardy and could end up costing a whole heck of a lot more.
The only recourse you MIGHT have is to go to the Secretariat yourself (or your hubby better if he is Dominican) and ask for a review of the amount owed. If they are in a good mood, they could possibly reduce it, but don't hold your breath.
Because you wrote that letter, everything is against you and there is no one other than a crooked lawyer who would take this on and give you any satisfaction.
Getting the family involved would be disastrous given the comments you made about them. They would see you paying as a green light towards thinking something up themselves and you might just have fallout that you could never anticipate in a 100 years.
Calling the police, taping her conversation, trying to get even or even get justice are all jokes. None of that will work. The 'employee' has everything on their side.
I had to spend days and days going back and forth to the Secretariat for a fraudulent claim and finally had to get a lawyer involved myself. The lawyer for the 'employee' was as crooked as an eel and not only went after twice what the Secretariat stated, but was going to put a type of lien on my business, me personally and was insisting that I pay for all his legal expenses, which were not determined as yet.
I got an excellent lawyer and a Dominican spokesperson to iron it all out, making sure I got back all the original documents that had been placed at the Secretariat and got sign off before showing the money. The lawyer wanted the money and was going to present the papers the next day, he said. Ha!!!!
I ended up paying. There is no way to fight it. I wanted to, to be sure. I hate it when someone tries to put one over on me. But, I was not going to buy that bloody lawyer a pool or an extension to his house!
Chalk it up to experiencing more of the Dominican Way and realize that you cannot trust someone who has clearly shown themselves to be untrustworthy.
Having a business and having to hire people and deal with them is a scary business here. One could lose it all without even knowing it is happening.
Good luck in whatever you decide.
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