Should I seek legal advice..?

[JerryB]

Hi all

This is a bit of a long story, so please bear with me:

I'm currently 'enjoying' a rather tricky situation whereby a company that I have been freelancing for since January 2006 are refusing to pay a quite sizable amount of money that they owe me. Shortly before I became a freelancer for this company, I was an employee for a short period (in 2005), and before that briefly provided work as a freelancer for them (also in 2005) - and as my status changed again to freelancing in 2006, the boss (via e-mail) stipluated that in future he would require 'X' amount of work per month for 'X' amount of money. Over the past year they have made sporadic payments to me - 7 payments when they have been invoiced for 11 to the current date. These have all been signed by the boss in question.

I recently sent them an e-mail asking when they were going to settle their outstanding debt to me. In reply, the boss has claimed that the amount of work I have supplied and the amount I have charged is too much, that he cannot understand why I have charged him 'X' amount, and is thus saying that I in fact owe them money (he has said that he will seek ways to recover my 'debt'). This is all despite the fact that the boss himself told me via e-mail (as I've mentioned) that he would pay X amount for X amount of artwork, per month. He is claiming that I should have instead charged them at their usual rate, even though he has never stipulated that at any time. He has also never provided a contract stating his terms, and so as far as I know he is instead bound by the terms he outlined in his e-mail.

After asking him how, after one year plus, he has not raised any issues about any of this - and has personally signed various cheques to me - he has said that he has been taking time out for 8 months of the past year and that the current 'problem' has only been shown to him. Also bear in mind that at no point did any of his accounts staff ever query the amount I was invoicing the company for. Also, the company have always published every piece of work I have provided for them over the past year - again, he seems to be saying that he still did not notice the 'problem'.

Now, providing what I've explained above makes sense, I am unsure what legal action to take against him. My income is very limited (mostly due to problems such as this) and I am unsure as to who I should seek legal advice from with this matter. If anyone knows of any help or the correct proceedures to take, please let me know. I can also answer any questions if I haven't made things completely clear here.

[ratewhore]

What does your contract say? Or, failing that, do you at least have a set of t's and c's which both parties have signed?

[Not So Wise]

"This is all despite the fact that the boss himself told me via e-mail (as I've mentioned) that he would pay X amount for X amount of artwork, per month. He is claiming that I should have instead charged them at their usual rate, even though he has never stipulated that at any time. He has also never provided a contract stating his terms, and so as far as I know he is instead bound by the terms he outlined in his e-mail."
You seem to cover the main relevant parts in this paragraph

He can "claim" what he wants in regards to "usual rate" but it is totally irrelevant if his written communications say different. You would be in better situation if you had a contract but the emails should suffice

Honestly by sounds of things only way you will be able to sort this is via lawyers

I would also recommend you stop doing business with this client, actually reading though your email you should have stopped a long time ago.
Why oh why do people continue working for people when they have not paid previous money owed?

[Bluebird]

This sounds like a trap that some contractors [ myself included [ have fallen into, in working for a client who you trust, and then assuming that trust will be reciprocated and removes the need for a formal contract.

Without a formal contract it's not easy, however if you have an e-mail that confirms the work requested and rate, and work you've undertaken you should be able to persue an action.

As a amtter of interst how much is it for ? It's much cheaper to go through small claims court and their threashold is £5000.

I also believe you can use an on-line service

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp

[JerryB]

Thanks to all of you for your replies.

Yes, I know I'm a mug for continuing to provide work for this person - but I'm not any more However, I have an e-mail from him where he outlines what he wants and what he will pay, and I replied saying that those terms were fine with me. He never supplied a contract, so this e-mail is tantamount to an agreement. As I said, in the intervening months he has had plenty of time to raise any queries about this - but 'suddenly' it's an issue for him now that he owes me alot of money (it is £5000+).

I've also now actually sought some legal advice since making my initial post, and so am considering a debt collection company to handle these things. They have said that it could go to court, but that the usual situation is that debtors usually pay up rather than face court. In this situation, the person involved is clearly in the wrong, is trying to renege on an agreement, and is trying to retroactively claim that he meant 'something else' at the time, some 14 months after I began contracting for him.

So, I shall see how things progress. Thanks very much for that link Bluebird!

[JerryB]

Well, since my last post about this, things have not really improved. The debtor refuses to pay, and the debt collection agency don't feel that they can pursue the case within their remit, as the details are somewhat complicated. They've instead referred me to the company they use as their solicitors.

The only problem now is that using those solicitors is going to cost me an arm and a leg, and I simply do not have the funds to carry on with that course of action.

So I'm unsure as to what I should do next. I was thinking of trying the on-line small claims court thing, but I wonder if some of the complexities of my case will mean that this also comes to a dead end.

Any suggestions?

[malvolio]

Well, since my last post about this, things have not really improved. The debtor refuses to pay, and the debt collection agency don't feel that they can pursue the case within their remit, as the details are somewhat complicated. They've instead referred me to the company they use as their solicitors.

The only problem now is that using those solicitors is going to cost me an arm and a leg, and I simply do not have the funds to carry on with that course of action.

So I'm unsure as to what I should do next. I was thinking of trying the on-line small claims court thing, but I wonder if some of the complexities of my case will mean that this also comes to a dead end.

Any suggestions?

Invoice them now for the amount you believe you are owed, with a clear statement of 30 days payment terms. After that time, iuf they haven't paid, you can issue a winding up order - that usuallly gets their attention...

Menawhile go see a solicitor. They will give you half-an-hour consultation free, which should be enough to work out the best approach.

If you're sure the money is genuinely owed, the cost of recovery will be added to the bill and reclaimed form the debtor.

[Bluebird]

Well, since my last post about this, things have not really improved. The debtor refuses to pay, and the debt collection agency don't feel that they can pursue the case within their remit, as the details are somewhat complicated. They've instead referred me to the company they use as their solicitors.

The only problem now is that using those solicitors is going to cost me an arm and a leg, and I simply do not have the funds to carry on with that course of action.

So I'm unsure as to what I should do next. I was thinking of trying the on-line small claims court thing, but I wonder if some of the complexities of my case will mean that this also comes to a dead end.

Any suggestions?

The threat of legal action should be enough, if not you get the chance to explain to a judge why you think they owe you money - the judge "should" be competant enough - usually they allocate a judge based on the type of case - i.e employment so you should be ok.

[JerryB]

Thanks for your replies.

I've decided to pursue things via the on-line CCJ stuff. This seems to be my best option. I don't think that any solicitor is going tell me anything more than I already know, and I can't really afford one at the moment.

Hopefully the threat of a CCJ will resolve things. If not, I'll just have to pursue things further under my own steam using the other CCJ proceedures that will actually move things to a court hearing. I feel my case is strong enough, but time will tell where things lead