You can only sue for your actual loses or costs. If you were issued duplicate checks for the same hours worked and one cashed or cleared, you were paid for you work; therefore, you may *not* sue for the amount of the check that bounced, because you had no entitlement to double pay--the check *should* have bounced in a sense, because you were already paid for that time worked. An error on the part of your employer, in issuing you a duplicate check, does not entitle you to money that never should have been issued to you in the first place. All you could sue for would be an bounced or NSF check fee you had to pay when the check bounced (usually around $30 or so at most banks), since you would have charged that fee due to the carelessness of your employer: that is the only loss you actually suffered. Of course, it is very unlikely to be worthwhile to sue over that amount.