The Underscore Archives

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 7:48 PM, Steve Kirtley <steve.kirtley at gmail.com> wrote:
> Evening all,
>
>  I took a client on a few weeks ago who later accepted my quote to build his
>  website.
>  <snip>
>  Any tips/suggestions/get over it statements welcomed...
>

Steve, had something similar ourselves a few years back. Legal advice
suggested that contract law is one of the hardest to prove in English
law as both verbal and written contracts are just as binding. So its
sort of one word against another, even if it is written as (now I
could be wrong here) I believe that one of either the buyer or the
sellers terms overrides the others, cant remember which way round.

However, if you have emails to prove that he was happy with your
suggestions for functionality its not so much contract law I believe
then its about whether you delivered the service or product to the
required standard as agreed. If it is as you suggest as per the
agreement then a judge would or should rule in your favour via the
small claims court.

My advice though in the first instance (and this has worked every time
I've had the necessity to invoke it) I called up a solicitor and got
them to send a letter demanding payment by the end of the week, at
which time if payment had not been receive you can complete the court
papers yourself. I paid about £30 for the letter. Got the money, never
had to do the court papers. Most solicitors will do this without you
needing to promise them any other work.

HTH

Laura