I Was Ghosted By A Company After "freelancing" With Them For 4 Months Without Being Payed.

I worked as an independent contractor (1099 freelance) for the company ------ from July 1st to November 11th. The company has an outstanding invoice of $15,960.00 with me. The CEO, who I would go to for payment, has ghosted me entirely and refuses to reply to any of my communications (emails, phone calls, texts). The last time we spoke on the matter was November 6th. Our original deal was a "Net 30". Where I would complete specific project deliverables and then after 30 days I would be paid. Except I was never once paid on time. I was only ever paid $4,700.00 over 2 payments and both times I was paid, It was never to cover the full remaining balance.

Originally I was willing to take a late payment because of all the promises of future earnings and opportunities, but not 1 promise was kept. I kept on taking on more and more responsibility and was never paid for my work. And because the gig was passed to me by my former college teacher who never had an issue getting payed.

The company's address is in California. I worked for this company remotely from Iowa.

I first spoke to a lawyer here in Iowa and he recommended I pursue this in California. I then spoke with a lawyer in California and he recommended pursuing this via the California Labor Commissioner's Office. I filed my claim with them, waited a few days, and they denied my claim because the work was performed in Iowa. They recommended I pursue it in Iowa. So, now I'm back trying to get the ball rolling in Iowa. Getting professional help has been put on hold because of the holidays.

To support my claim I have compiled and organized every single piece of correspondence I have ever sent or received from anyone from DHC relative to the work I performed. That's emails, texts, and discord messages. I also have some recordings of meetings. I have a recording of the CEO ----- and I discussing my invoice just before he ghosted me.

Apart from my claim to my Invoice I also think I have a claim to having been miss-classified as 1099 instead of W2. I have a document where I go into further detail about that as well.

I have witnesses who all have agreed to help in any way they can. They all worked for DHC at the same time I did. One of the witnesses being ------ who was my direct supervisor and the person who would both prompt each project's deliverables/ edits as well as signed off to their completion.

I am in serious need of professional advice. Even while I was working with this company I was only every payed when my expenses required me to spend everything I could get as soon as I got it. When I was ghosted it was just after I payed my rent and was left with near 0 in the bank. I've had to get a loan and go on food stamps. I found a gig as a janitor but even if keep working with them and spend $0 on anything but rent it'll take me months to catch up to where I wont be nearly the full month behind on paying rent.

Any advice would be so greatly appreciated.