Agreed–good lesson learned. And no, a paralegal can’t represent you in New Jersey. And the amount is not enough to warrant getting a lawyer there. You’d probably have to appear in small claims court in New Jersey, which puts you out the travel costs to get there. You could try to get a judgment here in SD small claims, but then you still have to collect it and you are then out all the court fees. Basically, you have to take your clue from the debt collection folks and be persistent.
