Re: Withheld payments?

[Nora von Gerichten <wlg -at- pacificcoast -dot- net>]

Steve,

I am not sure about each state, or etc, I am not a lawyer and do not offer 
legal advice, only sharing an experience.  Also, I am in Canada.  This is 
common practice however, with lawyers wanting their legal bills throughout 
the US and the British Commonwealth.  I found it such a simple solution, 
and questioned many of the US lawyers I work with on a day to day 
basis.  As with everything, there are specifics.  In my case the lawyer 
recommended this as the client a) paid a retainer indicating intent to 
execute the assignment; b) bounced the cheque, indicating intent to pay; 
and c) stated on numerous occasions to the bank and to me, that funds would 
be in the account on a specific day.  This guy was just not going to pay.

Perhaps the operative idea is that I am very clear in my mind that a small 
claims ruling would be in my favour.  This course of action cannot be 
entered into without 100% believing you are 100% right.  I log my hours in 
10 minute increments with tasks.  I will not pick up my pen to begin unless 
I get a retainer.  My documentation was in order.  Any legal matter 
requires your documentation to prove you right.

In this case, the cheque was for $22,000.  Small Claims Court maximum is 
$20,000.  I took a gamble and won.  Going to court is a gamble, too: 
perhaps even more so.

Nora

At 05:07 PM 2/3/02 -0800, you wrote:

That kind of stuff is probably different in each state in the US.  I don't
know if you can do this where I live in California.  The libel laws would
probably prohibit it. Also, any company with deep pockets could drown you in
paper and sue you for defamation.  Whether the
defamation is true or not doesn't matter if they've got a stable of lawyers
and you've got just yourself.  I've had some troubles collecting from
clients in the past, but nothing (so far) that's required anything other
than being very assertive.

Always good to have a contract in place, though, that explicitly spells out
the terms of payment and terms of work...

steve arrants



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Did you know you can get RoboHelp certified?
To learn how, visit http://www.ehelp.com/techwr. Be sure to also check out
our special pricing offers and promotions for RoboHelp 2002.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.