Anyone taken a Web Design Co. to Court and won?

[LianneF]

Hi
I have posted this in legal as well but thought replies from web designers and other website owners would also be helpful.
Thanks
Lianne

Hi
I had problems with another web design company from this forum which I posted about last year. I searched for another company to do the website and had some silly quotes back and decided to use someone else off the forum as they had done work on my other site and was happy with their work. A contract was drawn up and a deadline and a step by step payment plan. The deadline was in Feb and have given him numerous times to finish it, the last being 7 days which has passed and the site still isn't finished. Has anyone taken a web design company to small claims court and won as I was thinking that as they are Ltd that maybe they can get anyway with this and if this is the case then what is the point of a contract. I would welcome any advice from anyone who has taken a web design company to court over breach of contract.
Thanks
Lianne

 

[GoingOnline]

I've had many clients having this kind of problems with web developers (that's why I end up working for them myself!) and it seems it's more frequent than it should be.

As a web designer and LTD company, I can tell you we are subjected to the same "breach of contract" terms as anybody else. But don't expect to be able to claim a million in indemnification, so it may not be worth your time. Get legal counsel and keep a paper track of everything you have talked with the designer, record the time of phone calls, etc... Also check out how would you answer the question "why this wasn't addressed before the last deadline if the person failed to meet milestones?"

Disclaimer: Just chiming in as a designer who read quite a lot about what risks do I have (Such as a client suing me for breach of contract!). Having an LTD just means they'd not have to sell their house if, for example, the judge awarded you a sum the company cannot pay. But it hasn't happened yet and I hope it doesn't!

 

[wwdg]

We had to go down this path with a previous client around 18 months ago and it costs us another £300 and didn't go anywhere.

You have to be prepared to pay more money for a chance of getting it back, from our experience it wasn't worth it which is why we stopped the process and had to put our principles out of mind.

however this is only one case and there may be alot of people on here with success stories they can give you and maybe some advice.

 

[webstore]

If you take the matter to Court and if the dispute relates to technical matters regarding website performance, you will probably find that The Judge will make an Order for parties to mutually appoint a Court approved Independant Expert Witness.

The cost of the Independant Expert Witness will have to be shared and paid for between parties ahead of the Expert Witness submitting a report to the Court and both parties, ahead of a subsequent Hearing.

The cost of an Independant Expert Witness will be very approx £3k + vat (possibly higher) - we are sure others post different costs - so if the dispute is over a website in a similar or lower price range, Court action by either party is simply not worth the effort.

Having said that with so much good and popular OpenSource software around these days, unlike times of the distant past when coding a site was done from scratch, there should be less likelyhood for such disputes these days if one sticks to popular OpenSource software.
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[Parrot Hosting]

I have found that there seems to be more instances of clients not paying designers 'because' .............(put in whatever reason you want in here) then the other way around.

Experience tells me that some people/businesses are going to be harder to please than others. AND in the main cases I have come across it has been down to perception from both parties that causes the problems.

Experience also tells me that despite the probability of winning... its really not worth the stress/hassle or expense of taking the whole thing to court. Whilst I have never lost a court case yet, I remember each one painfully and with great regret that I didn't in the first instance either walk away or just settle as the stress it put me under was extreme and the effort required to get your facts in a fastidious order and present them is such that I would rather go to the dentist for a root canal job.

I do stress that I have never lost a single case, but its never worth the winning if you are inclined to want a better quality of life. Move on... nothing to see here...

 

[CompleteWebDesignLtd]

In your contract there should be a clause which states that if the company in question breaches the contract they will have X amount of working days to fix the breach or the contract becomes void and the payments you have made should be refunded if you have not yet had any finished work presented and released to you. If there is no such clause I believe the industry standard is 30 days, seen as you agreed an extended deadline technically they are not in breach of contract until this time is up. You say it is now approximately 7 days past the agreed deadline so I would issue a notice that if work is not complete within 23 days that they are in breach of contract and you will be invoicing them for the amount you have paid. Unfortunately unless you have any legitimate evidence that this has lost you business then you can not claim compensation. Also be prepared that if they offer you a payment plan there is little the courts can do to alter this so you may have to accept a small monthly amount over a longer duration.

Finally if they offer a small amount as full and final settlement it may be well advised to accept because, as stated above, the length of time and stress involved in going to court is not normally worth it unless it is for a particularly high amount.

I hope this has helped and best of luck with resolving the problem.

Kindest regards,

James

 

[MartCactus]

The problem with these types of disputes is that they are rarely black and white.

From reading your post it appears to be that the developer has just missed deadlines that were written in stone.

But is it as simple as that?

As developers we think deadlines are important. But sometimes due to no fault of our own we're unable to meet them. For example
1) the work involves working with a third party - either a visual designer who is supposed to provide mockups to us, or a third party supplier of data that is supposed to integrate with the site. If the third party delays us, we can't meet deadlines
2) sometimes clients change their minds or try to vary the specification. In some cases the specification is vague, so the client believes they are just "fleshing it out", but their fleshing out involves new functionality and much new work.

Also, you mention the contract is staged payments, presumably falling due as deadlines are met. So I assume that some of the site has been completed, but that you're now looking to recover what you've already paid?

Its more likely that a court would want to see your costs for having the site completed. On the basis that some of it is already paid for and accepted, try to get a cost from another developer for finishing it. If this is more than the last installment you've been quoted (but not yet paid) then you can recover the difference in court, but unless this amount is large, its probably not worth it.

 

[TotallySport]

we took a web deisgner to court and won, but getting the money back is a whole different story, all the court does is state the designer owes you x amount of money (if thats what its about) you still have to recover that money, which takes more time and more effort.