I'm about to file a claim with the county court (small claims) for the first time and would appreciate any input/advice/support from people who've done it before with non-paying clients. How did it go? Was it easy? Did you get paid or did they accuse you of being a horrible person in a countersuit? Etc...

How far have you got?

 

If you are just at the threatening stage I have an idea that would save you a lot of crap.

I had a case recently of a client not paying. I just got my lawyer to phone them up and he managed to sort it out without going to court and I got paid within 2 days. He did a bit of research into the partnership companies involved and just did his plummy voiced harbinger of doom voice and won the case in my favour over the phone.

 

How far has your case gone? Have you gone to court yet? Do you have a lawyer?

We're at the point of being told to "stop harassing" her (not that we have... she always tells us to call her on such and such date to discuss and then doesn't pick up the phone), so we'll be filing the small claim at the end of the week since it would be legally sketchy to continue to call her for payment at this point.

 

We don't actually have a lawyer, but I'll be looking into a firm that liquid generously advised me of.

 

I think I have this irrational fear of paying GBP300/hr for a lawyer and being responsible for those costs. Even though her contract technically states she's responsible for all legal/collections fees... her contract also states she's supposed to pay us for our work in the first place!

 

If it's not impolite to ask about money, do you hire a lawyer for smaller amounts (say, I dunno, GBP600 )?

I'm really lucky that one of my best mates is a lawyer, so I don't have to pay legal fees...just supply him with home made jam and cookies on a regular basis! It's the best deal ever!

 

And one of the benefits of that is that when he called my client he plainly stated that he was a 'friend of the family' and so I wouldn't be paying any legal fees and so it didn't matter how long it would take for him to pursue the case...it would cost them more than it would me if they didn't comply etc etc - very good tactic.

Have you ever heard of escrow? Its a great way to ensure you get paid.

 

Basically, you pay an impartial third party a small fee (say £20) to hold the final version of the site (on CD or similiar) and the clients payment.

 

Once the client has paid he hands the site onto the client, and pays you the money.

 

There are plenty of proffesional escrow services out there, typically charging between 0.5% and 2% of the fee.

yeh but that wouldn't help him if she didn't pay still. He'd have done all the work for nothing and then court could be harder because technically he has delivered the goods. If it's in the contract she has to pay then I'd get a lawyer and add that to the bill. There are also debt agencies where you sell the debt to them for less than your technically owed and they take over the bill. Might be similiar although you lose out some of the money. Never had to do it myself as I keep all the code on my servers so they don't pay and I pull it :-)

Yes, there is a problem with not having delivered the goods, but generally with escrow it is considered that if it is delivered to the escrow agent.

 

As long as you have a solid contract (client pays for the work done regardless of completion. This means that if it is cancelled you can claim about 20% of it no problem, more if its later).

I'll defer to your knowledge. as I say I always do complete packages including hosting so the code never leaves my control. As such I don't have many of these problems

yeh but that wouldn't help him if she didn't pay still. He'd have done all the work for nothing and then court could be harder because technically he has delivered the goods. If it's in the contract she has to pay then I'd get a lawyer and add that to the bill. There are also debt agencies where you sell the debt to them for less than your technically owed and they take over the bill. Might be similiar although you lose out some of the money. Never had to do it myself as I keep all the code on my servers so they don't pay and I pull it :-)

 

 

As far as im concerned expat629 is female

yes you're right. I don't check profiles for gender

Thanks, Cromo.

 

As long as you have a solid contract (client pays for the work done regardless of completion. This means that if it is cancelled you can claim about 20% of it no problem, more if its later).

 

That's the problem though. I haven't handed over the site, it's not completed, and we have a pretty fail-safe contract... but the client doesn't care; she has no intentions of paying. So whether I was going through escrow (which I hadn't thought of before, actually) or doing it myself, wouldn't the result be the same? ("No, I'm not giving any money to you or to the escrow service.")

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding it though - does the escrow service chase her for payment if she refuses to pay? A "hired thug" would be quite handy.

 

I'll also look into selling the debt to a debt collector - nice idea and saves me some hassle. Thanks!

Thanks, Cromo.

That's the problem though. I haven't handed over the site, it's not completed, and we have a pretty fail-safe contract... but the client doesn't care; she has no intentions of paying. So whether I was going through escrow (which I hadn't thought of before, actually) or doing it myself, wouldn't the result be the same? ("No, I'm not giving any money to you or to the escrow service.")

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding it though - does the escrow service chase her for payment if she refuses to pay? A "hired thug" would be quite handy.

 

I'll also look into selling the debt to a debt collector - nice idea and saves me some hassle. Thanks!

 

The whole point of an escrow service is that the money goes into escrow before you begin the work and therefore you do not waste time on clients that have no intention of handing the cash over.

Ahhh, okay. Didn't know that. Thanks!