Contract or not a contract?

[premiere]

I was offered a good contract position and a good daily rate at a good company through 'agent x'...but then it turned out that the agency and the end client could not agree terms and conditions, so the job fell through (something to do with their margins!)

The end client really wants me and said, go through agent y who are a preferred supplier of ours. Agent Y said, no problem, but unless agent x gives us written confirmation that they are going to release you, we cannot represent you for fear of being sued.

My argument, was that I hadn't even signed a contract with agent x...but y won't play ball.

They did contact agent x though, who then demanded a 'finders fee' of ten grand!!!

Needless to say, agent y won't pay that.

Surely if I haven't signed a contract, agent x cannot demand anything? Or is the fact that they submitted my details to end client, and then 'managed my interviews enough to constitute a binding 'only we can represent you' at this client type thing?

Also, can't go direct, as client won't do that.

[MarillionFan]

If you instructed agentx in an email or over the phone with something like ' I confirm that I represented by Agent X for this role' which a lot of agents do. Then you are bound. Otherwise it's tough tulip.

[BlasterBates]

Its tough sh*t, the thing is the outcome of the court case would be uncertain at best, and neither the end client or this agency are going to risk it, it appears.

However I would recommend contacting the client just to see if there is another possibility, such as through agency x but with better conditions.

[abc]

Are there any lawyers in the house?

If you have not signed a contract, what contract is actually in force here?

Would it be just a verbal/email contract to allow the agency to present you to the client for this one requirement? No more than that?

Usually paper contracts have a clause in them saying that if you do actually take up a role with the client via a given agency, that if you take up a subsequent contract with the same client, then you need to go though them.

In this case, if you have not worked for the client before you would not have agreed to a clause of this type.

Perhaps if the client was to notify the 1st agency that the contract has been withdrawn (they no longer require a person for that role), they can then simply create a brand new requirement, with (say) some additional skill not mentioned in the first contract, but that you have, and you could apply for that as a new role, the point being that you have not agreed to let the 1st agency represent you for all roles, just the original one.

An expert on contract law would be able to tell you if this would work (and that's not me!).