J W wrote: > Counterpoint #2: Unless you have money for a lawyer and run through small > claims, your more than likely SOL. We need more protection that just trying > to hire a lawyer. How much $$$ do you have to shell out for lawyers to MAKE > a uplholdable contract/agreement. Remember its still you job to collect even > if the judge awards you money. Good luck with that. How many consultants > have the expendable income to collect like this.
At DotComIt, we've never had a collection case go to court. Often a letter on the lawyer's letterhead is enough to get payment flowing. Of course the lawyer takes a cut of the collection (usually ~15%), but it's better than not getting paid at all. 4 weeks (160 hours) at $50 an hour = amount too large for small claims. I would hope that you're billing cycle is not longer than a month. As to how much DotComIt has spent creating legal contracts; quite a bit. In the beginning a lot of this was reactionary. "okay, we had X problem with the client; how do I cover myself in that situation." These days we never work without being under contract, nor without an advance. And we have procedures in place to stop work if payment becomes late. -- Jeffry Houser, Technical Entrepreneur, Software Developer, Author, Recording Engineer AIM: Reboog711 | Phone: 1-203-379-0773 -- My Company: <http://www.dot-com-it.com> My Podcast: <http://www.theflexshow.com> My Blog: <http://www.jeffryhouser.com> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Jobs-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:3609 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Jobs-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.11
