Services as a self-employed contractor

VfM4meplse

I have been asked to provide an advisory service to a small business owner. It would be a potentially interesting area of work, but alarm bells are already ringing in my head as the individual concerned seems to have the memory span of a goldfish. Instinct is telling me to leave this well alone, as payment for advice (even written) may be conveniently forgotten and difficult to establish that the work was commissioned.

In the past I have either signed contracts for advisory work with the other party (inevitably large firms) to ensure confidentiality, no liability for tax etc, and on the rare occasions I have worked for smaller businesses without a formal contract, it has been on an operational basis, and chasing money has never been an issue.

Although I have decided not to proceed with the project alluded to because I don't trust the commissioner, it has made me realise that I have been lucky with my past arrangements. My question is about the legal standing of any agreement. I can appreciate that a verbal agreement in the absence of witnesses would be subject to challenge. Out of interest, how legally binding is any audit trail of an agreement, such as email, or a signed document that has not been witnessed / drawn up with legal advice?

paddyrg

I suspect people are just a bit unsure of the exact question you're asking - can you spell it out clearly?

On the dealing with scatty sole traders - well they may be lower value clients overall, and you may have to keep on top of payments etc., but you also have a chance to make a bigger impact to their business compared with a big corporation. You might get more direct gratitude!

Edit - PS - try the Small Biz forum - might be more of a home crowd.

Slinky

It's possible to buy a generic set of Terms and Conditions of trade to adapt for your business, maybe this would be worthwhile for you OP to provide for smaller businesses that you work with.

Also seeing that you are providing advice, I'm assuming you have professional indemnity insurance for it in case somebody taking your advice has issues with it?

VfM4meplse

paddyrg wrote: »

I suspect people are just a bit unsure of the exact question you're asking - can you spell it out clearly?

VfM4meplse wrote: »

My question is about the legal standing of any agreement. I can appreciate that a verbal agreement in the absence of witnesses would be subject to challenge. Out of interest, how legally binding is any audit trail of an agreement, such as email, or a signed document that has not been witnessed / drawn up with legal advice?

Aside from a legally drafted contract, which of the following constitutes a binding contract?
- a verbal agreement (Judge Judy aside )
- an agreement agreed by email?
- a signed agreement, drawn up without legal advice and witnessed
- a signed agreement, drawn up without legal advice but not witnessed

Slinky - the reason the service is advisory only is to limit my own liability - work is fully referenced so whoever uses it can draw their own conclusions, and limitations of the work are clearly spelled out. I was thinking about indemnity insurance and in fact setting up a LLP whilst posting this morning....I just don't want the headache of extra paperwork and additional cost for what is potentially a relatively small part of my income.

InsideInsurance

All form a legal contract.

The problem with the less durable versions is dealing with disputes. Whilst a verbal contract is as binding as a written one it is much harder to prove what was actually agreed if nothing was written. If it goes to court then the judge basically goes on who he believes.

The more formal the agreement the less the room for arguing that other additional wordings were agreed, duress was used, wordings have been changed etc. Of cause even with a fully witnessed agreement drawn up by a solicitor and signed infront of a commissioner of oaths wouldnt stop an argument over what the actual wordings mean.

As to if legal professionals have been used or not, that makes little difference to the validity of it but may mean there are more clauses that's meaning can be challenged due to poor wordings. Most contracts will include the term that should any clauses be unenforceable doesnt make the whole contract unenforceable.



Why are you looking to form a partnership for this work though? What vehicle are you normally using for your contract work?

paddyrg

All are legal contracts - the only problem will be proving who said what when if you're verbal only.

Oh - read above - what II says!!