Was leaning about contracts today and came across a story of someone being burnt down the track for not putting crucial details in a verbal agreement about a project in writting and it made me wonder how commonplace it is for things to go so far awry in our industry.
Have you ever had a project go so wrong with a client that it ended up in court?
Part of business these days is being sued. Thatās why I always recommend that any freelancer do whatever is legal in their country/state/city to separate their personal assets from their business assets.
Usually being āsuedā is something like a C&D or a cash in on a warranty, or a notice of non-performance. It rarely ever gets to the court stage. My often used example of this is a billboard I saw once that the designer had made such an egregious error that it came down the next day. Someone had to pay for that mistake, the print, the install, the de-install, the new print, the reinstall, and quite possibly the missed calendar slot on the billboard frame itself. The client would go after the designer and/or print company for that expense, usually by stating their displeasure. That would be considered being āsuedā for lost revenue. Sometimes you can push the expense down the line, and multiple people end up being āsuedā until the source of the original error takes care of it. Iām being vague because weāve been in many positions along that spectrum. Itās all in good fun though and no one loses an eye. Usually.
Look at it this way, no client is going to spend money on something that is substandard. Iām not sure what you mean by ācrucial detailsā but missing a due date, delivering something less than described or sampled, errors in judgement, promises not kept, etc. ad nauseum all are opportunities for a client to call you out. Most will do it nicely. Others? Not so much. Sorta depends on the damage done.
So beware of verbal agreements. If they happen after the contract is written, thatās called a change order and submitted as such. Sometimes even if it doesnāt affect the bottom line price, if it changes any of the written details of the original contract it should be noted. Due dates for deliverables from both parties need to be stated. Completion dates need to be in there as well as any caveats. Sometimes we donāt even put in hard dates, more like a āyour prints will be done within 2 weeks of approval of final proofā - because Iām not going to get saddled with only one day of production to hit a due date if there are 15 file resubmittals while you change your copy after receiving your print proof. 
I was in court two years ago being sued for 10k - I won and they had pay to me damages.
It was only small amount so wasnāt that worried about it.
What happened was they supplied a file that was not going to work - it had issues.
We told them. They sent back a revised file that still had issues.
They refused to fix it. We told them it wonāt work like this - they insisted in going ahead.
Personally, I got a RIPPED proof that showed the issue, sent it to them, and got an email back in about 2 seconds that said thatās fine go ahead.
They didnāt even look at it.
It didnāt print right. 4k of print down the drain and a complete waste of everyoneās time.
They decided to sue us for the loss and the loss of earnings from the print.
But we had comprehensive emails detailing the issues, how to fix and asking to resupply the files. And we also had the golden email - āAttached is the RIPed proof you can see the issue that will appear in print - do you wish to go ahead with this or would you like to supply a new file?ā
Time stamped reply - 2 seconds later - āGo ahead with the print runā.
That seems pretty cut and dried. Clearly they werenāt very bright to 1) request you to print anyway and then 2) take you to court over it when they told you to print anyway even after being shown that it would not print correctly.
I have one of those going right now. A rather spendy project and a lot of the image resolution is too low. Iāve pointed out the issues. Ballās in their court.
Yeh the judge tore into them. I was covered and it was in the contract.
Always keep your emails and never do any deals over the phoneā¦
Number one rule. Always cover your arse.
No one has ever sued me for design work. Iāve received a few threats, but the other people mainly were just blowing off steam and knew they didnāt have a case.
Unrelated to design work, but I had a business threaten to sue me about a month ago over a bad review of his company I left on Google maps. I removed the review since it wasnāt worth the hassle.
In addition, about 15 years ago, I started up a hunting and fishing forum (even though I do neither). It grew quite large, but the bigger it became, the larger the headaches were. Hunters arenāt as well-behaved as graphic designers. They were always making violent threats and spreading various kinds of lies. Luckily, in the U.S., forum owners canāt be held liable for what other people write on their forums, so none of the lawsuit threats went anywhere. However, I still needed to keep an attorney on retainer to deal with legal threats and law enforcement officials. I finally sold it and washed my hands of it all.
At the beginning of my career, I sued two freelance clients for non-payment and won both times. Unfortunately, neither of those people ever paid. Collecting money from professional deadbeats who make careers out of not paying their way through life know how to work the system to their advantage. I learned a valuable lesson from both, though. Since then, Iāve carefully avoided people who seem sketchy and require payment in advance from anyone who seems the slightest bit suspicious.
No. Iāve had projects go wrong for all sorts of reasons. If it was my fault, Iāll try to make it right, usually by offering credit towards future labor or printing. A solid contract and good communication can prevent bad things from escalating.
Same. There are some people who are very cavalier with their threats of lawsuits. My dad used to say it was like them waving a gun. Itās great if they decide to NOT shoot you, but them pointing a loaded gun at your head is reason enough to dismiss them as a client.
Iām concerned lawsuits could be weaponized to eliminate rising competition.
so I have been vigorously researching every type of ālegal trapā there isā¦
as a preventative measure., I might not have the resources to
play defensive once itās too lateā¦
It sucks because if I put down ānot liable for anythingā
then prospective clients may not trust meā¦
but if I donāt then I donāt trust the client isnāt an
agent of some larger corporation out to sabotage me lol
ugh
For this reason, most professional designers keep 2 types of insurance: General Liability and Professional Liability. Together, you get coverage in case a client is unhappy with the advice youāve given, or if they accuse you of slander or libel, or if you donāt deliver a design by a contracted deadline and they suffer financial damages, or they visit your place of business and trip and injure themselvesā¦ If someone sues you, you contact your insurance company and let them deal with it.
The Graphics Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines has sample wording you can use in your contracts.
Theyāre not going to sabotage you. They donāt know who you are, and they donāt care.
Iāve been sued not very successful for the opponent.
I sort of sued a former supplier with an ok outcome.
I try to be careful without getting paranoid.
Iām not sure how everyone here even makes money.
I canāt even get someone to pay me.
itās just been none stop volunteering, free labour,
idea theft, and scamming for years now.
I think itās a bit ironic that I could be sued for being a day late
on changing a Facebook cover photo,
when businesses are all stealing weeks of work,
and profit from it without any consequences.
Mike Monteiro - F*ck you, Pay me
He was required reading in college.
Iāve always been told to require half up front and final payment before delivery. I did that on the small amount of freelance work Iāve done. Iāve also walked away from jobs that seemed sketchy and I always use contracts. I like working for an agency where an account rep has that particular headache.
I say ānoā significantly more often than I say āyesā.
To customers.
To suppliers.
To ideas.
To budgets.
But the ratio changes over the years in favor of āyesā. You learn. Customers learn.
A little off topic:
A wonderful film about communication design and saying āno.ā
We took a non-paying client to a small claims court in the UK as they did not pay. We had a contract for the work so we won the case and payment was made.
I mean there can be some arguments, but court? Never even heard about it. This would make me write contracts more seriously than ever.
Freelancing is a BUSINESS. Contracts are serious matters.
Small claims court isnāt like the old TV show Law & Order court.
Itās a fact of life. Be in business long enough and you will sue or be sued (in the broad sense of the term.) See my longer post above.
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