Q: Can I sue someone for not paying me even if there was no written contract in place?
I worked as a freelance software developer for a small game studio for the past 10 months. The first 5 months was voluntary work as the product was not making any significant amount of money. After that, I was paid approximately $1000 per 40 hours of work for multiple payments (no invoices, just paypal payments of certain amounts with text chats outlining what was being charged). About 2 months ago, the client did not pay me on time, so I stopped producing work. They claimed to not be happy with what I had produced and offered to pay me $600 for the work for that period (approx 60 hours) and I agreed to this price. I have this in writing as a text conversation. They never paid the $600 and now state that they are not willing to pay me anything for the work I produced, but continue to use the code that I wrote over that period of time in their game. Should I pursue this in small claims court or elsewhere? Or am I out of luck because no formal contract was written up?
A: You are out of luck because you accepted $600 for the time you worked and did not work after that time. Oral contracts are enforceable, and texts can substantiate a contract, but from what you posted you retained no interest in your Code. There is nothing in your post that substantiates that you have any claim left. Your post in contrast substantiates a settlement of $600.
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