Fucking Sue Me (2011)

I think the larger (and IMHO better) lesson is that it's really important to trust your clients and for them to trust you. That understanding is often more important than the legally-binding fine print that you two have signed.

For example, if the client doesn't agree with the bill you presented them, you're gonna have a problem regardless of what the contract says.

pud.com?

Phoenix

Like with a lot of advice on HN, take this article with a grain of salt and pursue a balance while trying to understand the competing forces at work.

My experience with entrepreneurial legal paperwork was that I ignored it too much in my early days and it bit me in the ass. When the money starts coming in and egos grow large, people reach for their lawyers when there's too much ambiguity in business relationships.

You don't want to kill opportunities with too much negotiation, but then again you don't want to leave yourself too open to misunderstandings that could have been avoided with a line or two in a contract.

There's a simple reason why this works for small businesses: nobody sues a guy with no money.

So if you're a sole proprietor scraping by and you piss off a giant company with lawyers enough that they want to file a lawsuit against you, well, what's the upside for them if they win? Tens of thousands of dollars in expenses on their side, and roughly zero dollars in recovered costs from the business they destroyed or the guy they sent in to bankruptcy.

Unless their goal is simply revenge, there's really no reason for them to follow through with such a course of action.