Salt Lake City, UT asked in Contracts and Employment Law for Utah

Q: As an independent contractor, how do I go about after clients who don’t pay after agreeing to a contract?

I was working online remotely for a company based out of California as an independent contractor and they were due to pay the remainder of what they owed us and they never did. The total came out to over $9000 and all attempts to get them to pay have been met with dead ends.

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2 Lawyer Answers
Wesley Winsor
PREMIUM
Answered

A: You mentioned in your prompt that they agreed to a contract. I assume that means that you have a contract signed by the company regarding the terms of your services. First look to the contract and see what it says under default.

If you are just using the word "contract" as a job and not a formally written document, you likely still have an oral contract. I would recommend talking to a lawyer to see whether you can do a mechanic's lien or if it is just $900, then your best bet might be small claims court.

I Hope this helps.

A: One option is a civil suit, either on your own or through an attorney. If you will be consulting with an attorney, you could make the most of a consult and keep things economical by summarizing things into an outline, including a brief description of the project, your agreement(s), efforts to collect, significant communications, etc. Good luck

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