A former client is refusing to pay me. Can I file a lawsuit to force payment?

You can file a lawsuit against someone that owes you money. Now, depending on the amount of money that is owed to you, it might not make sense to run to the courthouse and file a lawsuit. I recommend to my clients to reach out first and see if we can come up with an agreement where we can settle out of court instead of incurring legal fees upon legal fees and running through a lawsuit which can take two to three years cause a lot of stress, it’s usually a better option to try to settle the matter first. And if that’s not successful, then depending on what’s in the contract and how strong your position is, then yes, of course you can file a lawsuit against someone that owes you money.