talkmagic.co.uk

I wonder what Equity's take on this would be, if you were a member?

Oh, I expect the company has been reading this entire thread and are smirking away in great merriment over it. I shouldn't bother doing anything about it. I have always known that you are in a far stronger position being sued than being the one doing the sueing. First you have to get the judgement and then you have to collect. And sometimes the collection is more difficult than getting the judgement especially in the circles in which I frequent. I do concede that it is easier to collect from a company than it is from an individual.

I learned this in my younger more innocent days from two sources. One was a noted magic dealer I worked for. He sued somebody for something or other. It took ages and ages but in the end he won the case. But that was only the start of his troubles. Now he had to collect. It took more and more months of hassle but eventually he sent the bailiffs in. Of course the bird had flown with all the assets.

I took great note of that at the time and have always remembered it. It was my first lesson in the art of ducking and diving.

My second lesson was when I was dining with a bunch of fellow grafters. For those innocent in the ways of the world this term refers to what Americans call pitchmen. They are the sort of wicked people that you see demonstrating products in fairs and exhibitions. Some of them are terribly villanious and some are merely rogues and vagabonds. The more worthy of them are quite honest but do have the correct street wise mentality. And all of them are showmen.

One was being sued for something or other and he was laughing his head off about it. He thought the thing was terribly amusing. I remember he said, "Oh, I have had more writs that most of you have had hot dinners!" He knew then as I do now that when you sue someone especially an individual you often have as much chance of collecting as I have of becoming the next Pope. Providing the sueee knows how to hop, skip and jump of course.

But yes. You do have more chance of collecting from a company who is not adept at the midnight flit. Alas however, these kind of companies have terribly good lawyers.

No. I shouldn't bother with it. Put it down to experience.

As expected I got another booking on the date in question.
This was never about the money though, as I said before50% of my fee would equate to £250 and I wasn't going through the hassle of court for that. It was more about the time I wasted and the lack of consideration by the potential client.
They got an angry e-mail and an invoice I'm sure they'll never pay. Hopefully I wasted as much of their time as they did of mine.
The legal advice seems to be, no one really knows. The 7 day cooling off period sounds like it may hinder any legal action.
Lesson learnt, no more pencilling in.
Regarding who ever mentioned deposits. I generally do take deposits for new clients or for booking a long time in advance although generally I prefer to get the entire payment in advance. In this case though I wouldn't have had the chance to submit the invoice for a deposit.