Just dropping by to read your blog. You sounded like a lawyer or an accountant when you mentioned chasing after people for cheque. HEhehe… anyway, its difficult to chase after money, no matter where you are.

I had a client bounce a check this week, and you would have been proud of my response. First I called my bank and asked them to refund the fee they charged ME for cashing a bad check. Then I called the client’s bank and they hung up on me, but it turns out that the state where the check originated has a law against bad checks which entitles me to charge them a “statutory penalty” if they don’t send payment within 30 days of my re-requesting payment. So, I sent registered letter #2 (the first one was reminding them that my check was 2 months late) to my negligent client today and included a request for them to reimburse me for BOTH registered letters, plus the amount of the bad check. Probably won’t get any money out of them, but it felt good to write a strongly worded letter using such phrases as “statutory penalty” and “per state law.” In future, my contracts will include a clause stating the fee for bad checks and late checks and listing MY county as the jurisdiction should a visit to small claim’s court be deemed necessary.

I will stay tuned to this situation hoping your client has the decency to resolve this issue before the close of the year.

Late fees are stated in my contract, as is what Devon mentioned above – copyright transfers to client upon full payment of amount due. It does make it possible to prove a case in court of money owed, but again, collection could cost me too much.

I run into less of those problems because I don’t like having a middle man — a client for the client. I like to deal with the client directly. Too many warning bells go off when the person who hired me is actually supposed to be doing the writing, but has hired me to do it instead and the client has no idea it’s been outsourced.

That additional layer is usually more trouble than it’s worth.