

Ask HN: Client said he'll sue me because of an unfinished project. Need advice - eumu

Hi all, recently i got a freelance web project from my brother&#x27;s friend, we didn&#x27;t sign any contract, all domains and server are under my name. The project was nearly finished, unfortunately, we had big argument during the past few days, so i refused to continue the project and refunded the money. The fight was due to his bad manner and attitude which i couldn&#x27;t stand no more. Now, the guy said he is going to sue me if i discontinue the project and shut down the server because i&#x27;ll have ruined his ideas. I don&#x27;t think i did anything wrong since i refunded the money, so will i get in trouble because of i shut down the server? Thanks in advance.
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pwg
First, I am not a lawyer, so.....

1) threats of a lawsuit are not a lawsuit;

1a) lots of "bullies" like to throw around the threat of a lawsuit in order to
"get their way". But, as with most bullies, they are all bark and no bite;

2) no contract means nothing concrete to sue over. So any suit (were it to
even be filed) would devolve into a he-said she-said argument match;

3) his "idea" is no more or less ruined than before you started. Delayed, yes,
ruined, no;

4) did you refund "all" the money (and has he cashed the check [you did use a
check, so you can prove he received the money, right?]);

4a) if you refunded less that the total (i.e., the cost of purchasing the
servers/domains) then just also transfer the domains and the server over to
him, (with a paper trail) and then you will have properly refunded everything;

4b) if you have in fact refunded every penny (and/or turned over the domain
and server) he has even less legs to stand on as far as a suit.

~~~
eumu
Actually all the transactions were in cash, he paid me in cash and i refund
ALL in cash too. His idea was just about how the webpage layout should be,
very standard layout, nothing more than that, and some ideas were just
"borrowed" from some other websites. Thanks a lot for the replied.

~~~
mtdewcmu
One thing I've learned from Judge Judy is that you should document all of this
and keep any evidence you might be able to use in your defense. For instance,
you should have some proof that you refunded the money, if at all possible. It
makes you look much better if you have documents and the other guy doesn't.
And anything is often better than nothing.

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dragonwriter
If someone is threatening to sue you and you need advice, the advice you need
is probably _from a lawyer_.

IANAL, but you may not be right to assume that just because you didn't _sign_
a contract, you don't _have_ a contract (signatures and writings are useful
for contracts -- particularly as _evidence_ of what was agreed to and that it
was agreed to -- but they aren't generally _necessary_ to form a contract),
and even if you don't have a contract, there may be some other basis for a
claim. OTOH, refunding what he paid _may have_ done enough that there is
nothing left for him to claim. _But_ you'll get more concrete answers (well,
presumably) from a lawyer.

~~~
eumu
We didn't have any agreement at the beginning, just as simply as he paid me
and then i started to work. Never mention anything about compensate
whatsoever. Thanks for the advice.

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27182818284
Hi,

First, don't panic. Second, lawyer up. This just means at least talking it
over with a lawyer. That lawyer will probably advise you to wait until he
makes a move.

You need to lawyer up because even without a contract, certain states have
case law that might be applicable. For example, there has been case law in my
state where two people that talked about buying real estate, without a
contract, eventually ran into a sticky situation like yours.

Again, don't panic, it will probably be fine.

~~~
eumu
It did make me panic and angry, yeah i shouldn't be panic. I'm just a fresh
grad., don't have much saving for lawyer yet, so i'll wait and see. Thanks for
the advice.

