Case 0209-003
Background: My Contractor client had taken a contract for 10 weeks with a difficult client, who (despite engaging my client through an agency as an expert for the benefit of his expert advice) in fact became very awkward about actually listening to that advice. This got my client down to the point where he found himself unable to go in to work one week, and the agency, after trying to get hold of him several times to ascertain the position, then terminated the contract on the grounds of his breach in that he had not provided the contracted services. The agency then placed another contractor in the position, at a reduced charge to the client and at a lower rate. My client invoiced the agency for the previous month; the agency asked for a revised invoice to pay then the commission they would have earned during the week my client did not work before termination; he provided that; then they said they also wanted him to make up the reduced commission they would have earned during the remainder of the contract, and asked for a further revised invoice.
Advice: At this late stage there was little that could be done. The opportunity to be proactive had been lost, and the position had then been further prejudiced by (a) accepting the agency’s request for a revised invoice to allow for the one week, and (b) leaving the door open to further claims.
Action: Given that the starting point for all life’s decisions is ‘where we are today’, the best advice was to accept the position and issue a further revised invoice, but on the basis (a) that this was in full and final settlement, and (b) that acceptance was strictly on the basis of (very) prompt payment.
Comment: This case illustrates the importance of getting proper advice – and of taking proper action - as soon as things begin to go wrong. If he had approached me at that point, we could have got something in writing complaining about the client’s attitude, and making clear that it was the client who was making it impossible for the contractor to do a proper job. That could have resulted in an improvement; it would also have laid the grounds for a proper defence of any claims the agency might have made, and possibly also for the contractor terminating and claiming damages – a very different end result. Failing to do that, simply taking time out uncontactable, and then agreeing to a reduced invoice without any full and final condition were the things that sunk his prospects here.
© Roger Sinclair & Egos Ltd- roger@egos.co.uk 2002 - All rights reserved - see full copyright details
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