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>Verbal contracts are worthless, despite the idyllic view of some. In many
>cases, written contracts may be equally worthless, in that legal cost of
>"enforcement" often exceed collected amount. After some 20 years of
>practice, I realized the most important skill for a contractor is
>pre-qualifying potential clients--deciding who will and will not pay.
>
>The amount of work you do, the quality of the work you do, and the payment
>negotiated are all irrelevant if you don't get paid. Does it make you
>paranoid? Not at all. Just basic contracting skills. If someone doesn't
want
>to sign your contract, or spends a lot of time searching the fine print for
>loopholes, or, conversely, is too eager to sign with only a cursory glance,
>proceed with caution.
>
>In the last 10 years or so, I have turned down about a dozen jobs, and only
>lost payment on two. I wrote those off as "losing tickets" and went to the
>next project without missing a beat. Instead of embroiling myself in legal
>collections (that may not really work the way you think they do), I went
>back to work. No remorse, no regrets, no paranoia. It is all part of the
>business.
This is the right attitude, IMO. Remember that Bonnie Granat was dealing
with a contract worth less than $1000. No one is going to litigate in
a case like that, so any legal distinction between verbal, e-mailed, and
and formal written contracts are irrelevant. However, it's always a good
idea to at least document each party's expectations in an e-mail.
Cheers,
Chris
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