Taking a client to Small Claims Court for unpaid invoice, hold my hand please!

[ZolaBuddleia]

Have threatened SCC as I have an unpaid invoice from early November. Having ignored emails etc for a long time this has made him sit up and take notice. However, it's now got a bit nasty, he is contesting it, saying that I shouldn't be invoicing for that amount given the percentage of the work I got through on the project before it was pulled.

He called a halt to the project due to lack of funds, and I think it's no accident he pulled the plug the day before my invoice was due to be paid.

I am confident that the amount of work I had done by then was appropriate for the invoice submitted, and I have email confirmation of an agreed payment schedule.

However, I HATE confrontation and worry that, in a small industry where people know each other I could get a reputation for being difficult. There is an industry association who know about this, and I worry that, whereas previously they wouldn't have hesitated to recommend me for work, I may have now blighted my chances.

Am I right though, aren't I, to push to be paid for work I've done? I feel sick.

Of course you are right. It would be very wrong NOT to push for fair pay for the work you've done, you would be letting down your fellow freelancers and setting yourself up for future exploitation. Deep breath and do the right thing.

Thanks. It's such a woolly bloody industry, "we're all in it together" etc. I'm sure some people would just accept it as something that happens and I'm worried about sticking my head above the parapet.

I'm not the only one owed money and I suppose if I get in first I stand most chance of being paid, don't I?

If an industry association tried to blacklist you for expecting to be paid for work carried out, Trading Standards, Private Eye and severral others would have a field day.

You did the work.
THe billing date is not the point.
The amount of work completed is the issue
you should be paid for all agreed work