Employer Refusing To Pay Up

I started working for this company in October on a visa and they never paid me. At first, they said it was due to payroll issues, then they said they are going bankrupt, and then they straight up refused to communicate or even let me into the office. I was under contract till January and I couldn't leave because they were processing my visa with USCIS and quitting at that point would have left me in limbo, so they just took advantage of that fact. I finally quit after getting the visa thing sorted and am working for another employer, and meanwhile raised a complaint with my state dept of labor. The department sent a notice to the company and they replied saying that they have resolved the issue and mailed my check and W2. I never received those. At one point, they even said they were gonna pay me 45k lump sum as damages for my inconvenience but I never got that either. I cannot afford a lawyer right away, I'll need at least a few paychecks before I can do that because my previous employer fucked up my finances. Is there anything I can do to hold them accountable for this? Will not taking them to court now be a problem and weaken my case later?