[thelist] Legal thoughts

[john at johnallsopp.co.uk]

Hi everyone

Just musing. I've a client who wasn't paying and I've resigned from the
project. There's no paperwork covering our contract. Am I in my rights to
not assist the people who will take over the project, to withhold
passwords and the like, until payment is received? I do state on my
invoices that, basically, it isn't yours until you've paid for it. However
since it was a maintenance project, some of the site was there already, so
I'd be withholding access to the whole site, not just to my work.

I'm assuming I can't take the site back to the point to which the client
has paid.

And if I can do any of this, what might the client counter with I wonder?

I'm in the UK.

I know I need to get proper advice, but I was just wondering about
experiences. I thought the British Computer Society had some kind of free
legal helpline but I can't find it.

And yes, I will get proper contracts sorted out :-)

And, finally, no, I'm not like this. I wouldn't normally countenance such,
I just want to know what I have to get what I'm owed. I don't think this
particular client would bother too much about a small claims court summons
or bailiffs knocking on the door.

Cheers
J