Non-payer

[SimonHart]

Can you help me please? I have proofread some work for a client. He made an upfront payment of 50 percent of the agreed total and I then completed the work for him. He insisted that I finish the work for 9am the 25th August and I sent it the previous evening in order to give him time to prepare it for submission. He accepted the work and the following morning even sent additional work for me to do.

He then said I hadn't met the deadline (which I clearly did) and had made the odd grammar mistake here and there (though evidently not enough mistakes for him to prevent him sending more work). He now refuses to pay the balance and even had the audacity to snigger at me in his last email.

Is there a way in which I can recover the money owed to me?

Thank you.

[Wacky]

Only if you can afford a good attorney ...

[curdles]

Hello Simon,

This sounds, to me, like a pretty nasty wind up. (And if he was critical of your grammar, I wonder why he hadn't corrected that himself before sending you the work.)

I guess it depends how much he owes you and whether it's worth the hassle and the cost, if you use a solicitor, of taking it to the small claims court. If the outstanding amount is not more than a couple of hundred quid, I would send back the additional work, cut my losses and walk away from it.

[gpuss]

It's tempting to say cut your losses and forget it, but then the person involved just gets away with it. If you are sure you are right and have the evidence, you should follow it up with the threat of legal action. If he insists on taking it further (some would admit they were wrong there and then and pay up) and loses, he will have to pay your legal expenses too, plus some other expenses at the discretion of the judge. So I would never take the "cut your losses" line unless I thought the client had a point.

A really good service is this: https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome. It is part of HM Courts, not some no-win-no-fee merchant. It's just a simple, streamlined way of making a claim which in itself acts as a sign that the client should start taking you seriously. It helps if you have the real contact details of the clients, and unless you were paid in cash he should be traceable (even a PO can be traced back to the buyer if necessary) but I have found Moneyclaim pretty good at tracing down people trying to hide behind Hotmail (e.g.) accounts.

Unfortunately a lot of people think that freelancers are fair game for their silly tricks, as we are unlikely to have legal teams or perhaps even the will to risk a court case. But should he be daft enough to take it to court, it is not an intimidating thing for you. It won't be a court situation like the ones on TV; it will be the two of you, a judge and an audio recorder in a room around a table. You'll have submitted your evidence already and the judge will ask you questions and hear your responses, then make a decision. I've been that far a few times (but most clients have paid up after the first court letter) and would heartily recommend it.

Curdles is right too ... If he is an expert in grammar, why pay an editor? And if you're so dreadful he should be claiming back his first installment.

Maybe you could name and shame him here too! We could look out for him

[Wacky]

Maybe you could name and shame him here too! We could look out for him

Best advice ever ... I agree!

I don't have all the answers but Charlie certainly has this one buttoned down.

Go for it!

[gpuss]

And don't forget, Simon: you are not alone. The people on this forum can help you. You'll find no end of empathy here.

[Kateproof]

Hi Simon,

Is the client a student?

Kate

[Kateproof]

For those interested, I have raised a query with the intellectual property office regarding who owns copyright on a piece of work if the client hasn't paid.
I know that translators claim copyright until payment is received but they have obviously written the document in the 'new' language and thus created a piece of work in its own right whereas we've just made changes.
I believe though that if we do own the copyright to all our amends and changes then until payment is received they can't use that text.

I will let you know what response I get...

[gpuss]

That's a very interesting angle. I'd never heard of it before but there could be something in it. I'm not sure if editing is the same as translating when it comes to copyright though, as the latter is probably more of a creative activity, whereas editing attempts to simply make the most of an existing "feel". But do keep us posted. This could be dynamite!

[Wacky]

I believe though that if we do own the copyright to all our amends and changes then until payment is received they can't use that text.

A tantalising perception. I am inclined to agree but as Charlie said ...

"Watch this space"

[gpuss]

I think it's fair to say that the if the client does not pay you citing poor quality of work as the reason and then goes on to use the exact work that you did, s/he would be on very thin ice, and could probably be taken through the courts for fraud. But whether the editor is the de facto copyright owner until the payment has been made is another matter. Say for example the editor really does do substandard work - would the original writer/client have to go through the courts to reclaim it?

[Kateproof]

I contacted a proofreader in Australia as she actually states on her website that until payment is received she owns the copyright - I wanted to know if that was legally the case but she wasn't 100% sure. That said, no one had ever challenged her on the stance either...

The reason I asked with this case about the client being a student is that there is software used now to detect plagiarism and it would be really easy to run their submitted work through the programme and see exactly what changes they used that you put forward - this way, if a student doesn't pay, copyright aside, you could just say if they don't pay they can't use it and you will be checking and communicating with the university. Seriously hardball stuff and possibly not worth it for small pieces of work, but on some of the bigger essays, it could be useful.

[curdles]

Hope Simon hasn't been mugged by his client.

[curdles]

Has anyone heard from Simon? I PMd him but haven't had a reply.

[gpuss]

No. I hope he hasn't taken the recovery into his own hands ...

[curdles]

Yes, me too.

[SimonHart]

Thank you, I'm sorry I was unable to reply to you all sooner but I've been extremely busy and haven't been online for a while. Still, a massive thank you to everyone and particularly those who have gone into such detail on various procedures I can adopt to recover the money owed to me. No, I haven't mugged the man in question although occasionally I feel like sending an email with content that is, shall we say, unbecoming of a professional proofreader! Incidentally, he is or was a mature student at university. I have yet to have any such difficulties with authors or non-academic writers in general. Once again a big thank you and I never realised there was such camaraderie and empathy among proofreaders.

Had I been around long enough to hear from you all I would have followed the link and taken it from there but after all this time I've decided to 'cut my losses' and hopefully be wiser for the experience. I'll take comfort from the fact that he didn't owe me a fortune although naturally that's not the issue.

Once again many thanks to you all for going out of your way to offer advice.

Simon

[SimonHart]

Oh by the way, Curdles, thanks for the message.

[gpuss]

If you're really happy to let him get away with it, fair enough. But if there is any way that you can find out what his finished product looked like and it turns out he used your stuff, you should throw the book at him. Every few weeks, google an unusual phrase from the text, in quotes, and see what pops up.

[Kateproof]

Hi Simon,

I don't think you should walk away...
Contact the university and find out if they use 'turnitin'. If they do, I would then suggest you contact the student's tutor, explain the situation and ask them to run the version you sent the student and the final version that the student submitted through the system. If you were feeling nice, you could let the student know in advance that you will be doing this, giving them a little time to pay you if they get scared/realise you're not going to let them get away with it. Unfortunately, the student may have completed their course by now anyway and it may not make any difference, but it would possibly help if you then decide to take the copyright approach.
I got the following response from the copyright enquiries team and depending on how heavily you edited it, you may be able to pursue this angle or at least follow the small claims option.

"Thank you for your recent enquiry. Although we are unable to provide legal advice on specific cases, I hope the following general information is of use to you.

Currently, there is nothing in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which relates specifically to proof reading.

However, if you provide services for someone and receive no payment for the work you have done, this may be classed as a breach of contract. Such cases may be pursued through the small claims track, details of which can be found at the following link http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAnd ... /DG_195812

It is possible that you could claim some copyright in the work but your input would need to need to be original and of sufficient substantiality as explained here http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-appl ... iginal.htm.

[Ted]

Dude you are mugged up by the pre-planned brain game of a client. Your Week point is that you cannot beat them by legal deals and Court judgements b'coz they have all the proofs for proving their statement and you don't have anything.
I think, from your side the best way is to go and sit with them for talk and do some compromise.It will be the best for you.