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Until the spring of 2007, I wrote a regular column for a regional weekly outdoors magazine, with distribution throughout the Midwest. As one of their staff writers, I wrote a number of pieces for them over the course of 14 months. The reason I stopped writing for this magazine was simple - I never got paid.

I'm sure writers have been getting stiffed by publishers for as long as writers have placed a price on their work. Intellectual property is the term we use. Non-payment is one of the inherent risks that writers face and it occurs far too often in the industry. It seems as though I'm continually reading about it in the Outdoor Writers Association of America newsletter that I receive monthly. Common advice given to such writers is to simply make a clean break from the publisher and cut their losses -- a tough lesson learned, that sort of thing. I decided to buck conventional advice and good common sense and take the magazine court.

I won't deny it, I felt a little like Perry Mason that day as I roamed the hallowed hallways of the Second District Court in St. Paul, going over my documents and evidence and rehearsing my opening and closing remarks. I was loaded for bear. I had my briefcase; I had my legal pad and a sharpened #2 pencil (I doodled on the pad for nearly three hours as I sat in the stuffy courtroom waiting for my case to be called. I thought a legal pad would look more professional than an Etch-a-Sketch), and last but not least, I had my two good close friends at my side -- Truth and Justice.

You know what? I won the case. I won the case even though I had no signed contract. In court, that isn't how things typically shake out for a writer without a contract. I guess the judge plainly saw the David vs. Goliath match up and took pity as he listened to my honest tale of woe. Well, chalk one up for the Little Guy.

One thing I've discovered as I continue to navigate the legal circus and begin the collection process is that it's one thing to win a case, but quite another thing to collect the money you're awarded in a judgment. Now I need to do things such as docket my judgment with the district court, file for an Order for Financial Disclosure, and then order a Writ of Execution. After that, I'll need a sheriff's deputy to serve the Writ. Mind you, all of these filings cost money - $30 here, $60 there, another $50 for that other thing. I'm now convinced that the whole legal process isn't user-friendly, particularly to the "little guys" out there.

I know you're dying to ask the very same question the judge asked me after I made my closing statement in court back in October. Why did I keep writing for them for that long if they weren't paying me? My simple answer to the judge's question was that I'm a simple guy. When somebody shakes my hand and tells me they'll pay me for the work I perform, I tend to believe them. I trust others until that trust is abused. In this case, I trusted long after the abuse began.

I'm treating this process as one big learning experience. I definitely got my feet wet in the legal process and I'm poised to wade a bit deeper yet as I attempt to collect my money. I have 10 years to collect this money - or attempt to collect this money. Regardless of the ultimate financial outcome, I'll proudly recall that day I won in court as a big win for a small-time writer.

Dan Brown's weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankie's Bait and Marine, in Chisago City, and St. Croix Outdoors, in St. Croix Falls, Wis.

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