He was refusing to pay what he owed; I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

I’ve dealt with a lot of lawyers over the years. Many have been my clients (they know the value of a good ghostwriter). Many more have been my sources for magazine articles and books. Some are friends. And occasionally I’ve been a client.

And then there was the lawyer I sued in Small Claims Court.

My husband, Jerry Clement, and I love telling this story at dinner parties, and it occurred to me that the lessons we learned from the situation would be good for any service provider to know.

Here’s what happened:

A personal injury attorney contacted me because he was looking for a ghostwriter to create a series of small books that he could use to market his services. After several phone calls and emails, we began working on the first book, which focused on what to do if you’re involved in a crash with a tractor-trailer rig.

In my proposal, I clearly outlined the scope of the project, work process, and fees—including when additional charges would be incurred.

I wrote the book and he approved the manuscript. I did the interior design of the book, Jerry took his headshot and designed the cover, and we sent him a proof that was ready to go to print. Then he showed the proof to another lawyer in his firm, and that lawyer wanted to add a substantial amount of text. I explained that I’d be glad to do it but (as was stated in the revisions section in my proposal) there would be an additional charge for the production work. He didn’t want to pay more for the extra work—and what had begun as a pleasant working relationship deteriorated rapidly.

In my last phone conversation with him, he threatened to sue me if I didn’t do the additional work without charging for it.

I got off the call and got on the Seminole County Clerk of Court website, where I found instructions on how to take a case to Small Claims Court. The next day, Jerry and I headed to the courthouse and filed our case.

I wish I had been there when the lawyer was served.

I never spoke with him again. He (wisely) assigned another lawyer in his firm to handle the suit and negotiate a settlement with us to avoid a trial.

It took a couple of months and we ended up accepting a little less than we wanted (and what I think we would have gotten had we gone to trial) but the lawyer ended up paying way more than he wanted. We didn’t have to spend any more time on the situation, and we took it as a win.

Here are the lessons we learned:

Insist on a signed agreement. At the time, I knew I should have done that, but he seemed like such a nice guy and I was really looking forward to doing the work, so I let it go. If we had a signed contract when he argued that my additional fee wasn’t warranted and that he didn’t understand what that section of my proposal meant, I could have pointed to his signature on the agreement and maybe settled the conflict right then. Always have a signed agreement in place before you begin working. It’s a serious red flag when a prospective client doesn’t want to sign a contract.

If you’re a writer or providing other creative materials, be absolutely clear on who is providing the research and other information. My proposal indicated that the lawyer would be my primary source of information for his books. I expected to interview him and write the books from what he told me (after all, he was supposed to be the expert, right?). Instead, he sent me a book by another law firm and told me to use that and the internet for my sources—and then was unavailable when I attempted to get information from him directly.

Don’t let a client brush you off when you want to confirm details. This lawyer had a “yeah, yeah, you just handle that” attitude when I would try to explain the writing and publishing process, and I let him get away with it. If I had stood my ground, insisted that he listen to me (and insisted on a signed agreement), we might have gone on to produce a successful series of books. Or we might have halted the project before it escalated into litigation.

As soon as a client veers off the agreed-upon terms, speak up. If you’re willing to do additional work as a professional courtesy, fine—that’s your decision. But make it clear to the client that you’re doing them a favor. Once the “scope creep” begins, it’s hard to stop. Among other things, in this case, I spent a great deal of time educating this client’s marketing person on things he assured me she knew but she didn’t—time that I hadn’t factored into my fee.

Don’t let your desire to do a project override your business sense. When I look back on how this situation unfolded, I realized that the mistakes I made were largely driven by my desire to do the project. I know the value of small books as a marketing tool, I enjoyed the legal subject matter, and I thought it would be fun to ghostwrite and produce this series. I should have walked away from this project after the first few red flags, but I didn’t.

Don’t be intimidated by a client that tries to bully you. When this lawyer said he would sue me, I’m sure he expected me to shut up, do what he wanted, and let him rip me off. But I knew I was right. In the end, besides learning some valuable lessons, I got most of the money I was entitled to, and I lost him as a client.

That was a win-win.

Jacquelyn Lynn
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