It’s been so long since I’ve blogged here that I can’t even recall (after eight years of doing this) whether I use title case or AP style in my headlines. I’m pretty sure it’s the former . . . but who knows?
It looks like I’m in the process of getting completely boned by a well-known right-wing activist organization, which contracted me to work on a project through mid-March, and is now reneging on the agreement. Did I get it in writing? No; I did not.
The project included a certain amount of travel, including travel to certain cities that have Real Winter Weather. So I bought shoes that don’t lace for airplanes, and boots.
I got my hair cut and colored, for the first time in a year.
I began researching how people live on the road for weeks at a time, and prepared to spend a lot of time washing blouses and underwear in hotel sinks.
Now, the project is off, and it looks like I won’t even be going to CPAC (which I was going to self-fund, on the expectation of working with these people through mid-March, at least).
My boss is still insisting that we might go to CPAC after all, but I don’t see how that happens if they aren’t even willing to pay me for the past few weeks’ work. I’m certainly no longer willing to pay out of pocket.
I’m in a strange state: angry, resigned, and yet willing to do whatever I need to do to find more work via the possibilities that still lie before me. I do think that the country is ready to exhale, and that we’re moving out of the recession, very slowly (it will, of course, speed up drastically after Obama is replaced in the White House, by whichever imperfect candidate it happens to be).
We’ve got to keep going, and I’ve got to keep going.
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Here’s a motto for you:
In God I trust. Everyone else signs a contract.
You may have remedies (so you might consider spending an hour with an attorney to figure out if you do). But you should not throw good money after bad in terms of working for free.
Me? I would just gore the bastards.
I am sorry you are going through this.
LMA, IANAL, but I’d say you have an excellent chance of proving a contract existed. You have exchanged e-mails, written documents, and taken actions financial and otherwise that were only consistent with having a contract. There’s also the fact that depending on how much money is involved you can point out that winning may cost them more than they should have paid you.
Aside from the legal possibilities, you’ve thus far been gentle with them by not publicly naming them, and that’s a hole card for you.
If necessary, you should probably let them know that you are quite capable of costing them far more in donation revenues than they owe you, if they push you to the point of “no more Miss Nice Blogger.”
We’ll always have that weekend in Nuevo Laredo…. 😉
Sorry you are going through such crap. People just don’t appreciate brilliance.
I won’t be at CPAC either this year, for what it’s worth.
Yep, let them know that if it comes down to it, there are several bloggers out there, myself included, who which cheerfully blacken their names as crooked, lying, cheating, greedy bums all across the internets.
I’d be happy to get in on some of that action as well. Screw them.
Welcome back LMA – but I sure wish it was under better conditions. I agree with EBL and SDN: there’s a trail there; and with Bill Quick: nothing says love like a Chuck-Norris-roundhouse-kick blog post!
Woo hoo! I’m glad you have returned.
Cheers to the coolest gal of the Right Blogosphere (and also of the Southland Bloggers!)
Name and shame – but only after you get them to pay up for the breach of contract, the slime.
Welcome Back! You were missed!!!
Steve
Common Cents
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
Welcome back…it’s been way too long.
“Hand shake” contracts just aren’t what they used to be. Damn shame. Hopefully, the entity will receive their due comeuppance.
It’s awful that people do this sort of thing – face it, it amounts to theft not only of whatever work you produced for them so far but also by keeping you off the market for another gig.
I don’t know if by “well-known” you also mean “well-funded,” but even a shoestring operation would be damaged by the knowledge of the way they’ve acted. As SDN suggests, if you have any emails back and forth that discuss it or just confirm you are doing something for them, that’s “in writing” from a legal point of view. Cell phone records, especially them-to-you, can also be confirming.
If you haven’t been paid for weeks after asking, they either have no intention of paying you or no money; either way the option of going public is your only leverage so don’t just do it out of spite until it is clear you can’t get your money. But you first need to clearly demand your money from them, in writing, mentioning the specific amounts you are expecting. Unless their reply is a flat-out denial they ever hired you, it is confirmation of the debt.
And in most states you don’t need a lawyer for small claims court, and the fact they send a lawyer won’t be a huge advantage, small claims judges tend to view such things differently – not “Is his arcane point of contract law correct? To the Bat-Law Library!” but instead, “If they had just paid her it would have been cheaper than sending this jerk.”
Good luck!
I’m so sorry that happened to you! The Other McCain has posted about your problem and asked everyone to Hit Your Tip Jar, but he said you didn’t have one here and that folks should donate for you at the Conservatory, but I see you have one up here now – I hope you still get to go to CPAC!