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How do you dispute termination in freelancer contract?

23 November 2022 19:00

Hello freelancers,

How do you protect yourself from an early termination of a contract especially when you have invested significant work and energy into an agreed project timeline?

There are cases where the company could unfairly take freelancer's ideas and take their work in-house at certain phase of a project where there is no breach of contract from the freelancer side.

I wonder is anyone has good ideas to protect freelancers' rights? I found the following research online:

4. Termination
Finally, you need to set out what happens if you or the client want out of your arrangement.
The obvious scenario is one where you have a long-term contract for ongoing work and the client no longer needs your services, or you’re no longer available. A simple sentence requiring the party who wishes to terminate to give x amount of notice should work fine.

Unfortunately, it’s not always this clear cut. This is where things can get sticky.

You’ll want to include a kill-fee, which will cover you in case the client decides to cancel the project after you’ve invested a significant amount of time. This can be either a flat fee or a percentage of the final amount due. You should also set out what will happen in case of a professional dispute which makes it impossible to carry on with the work.

Round the contract out with an arbitration or mediation clause. Arbitration and mediation are faster, more flexible and a lot cheaper than taking a dispute to court.

Lorraine Shafer 12 December 2022 08:06

Follow this steps to dispute termination in freelancer contract : Give plenty of notice. Communicate with a peaceful state of mind and avoid writing when angry. Try to make it fair for both parties. Offer an alternate option to the client.
Lupita 20 January 2023 16:49

Hggdjessica, FrelanceUK arranged for a legal expert to offer you and other self-employed workers some advice, on the issues you raised! See the article from the frontpage of FreelanceUK, below --
https://www.free-work.com/en-gb/tech-it/blog/guide-to-freelancing/freelancers-questions-how-to-stop-a-client-from-stealing-my-work

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glebe digital 26 January 2023 09:39

Hggdjessica, post: 227445, member: 64136 a écrit : Hello freelancers,

How do you protect yourself from an early termination of a contract especially when you have invested significant work and energy into an agreed project timeline?

There are cases where the company could unfairly take freelancer's ideas and take their work in-house at certain phase of a project where there is no breach of contract from the freelancer side.

I wonder is anyone has good ideas to protect freelancers' rights? I found the following research online:

4. Termination
Finally, you need to set out what happens if you or the client want out of your arrangement.
The obvious scenario is one where you have a long-term contract for ongoing work and the client no longer needs your services, or you’re no longer available. A simple sentence requiring the party who wishes to terminate to give x amount of notice should work fine.

Unfortunately, it’s not always this clear cut. This is where things can get sticky.

You’ll want to include a kill-fee, which will cover you in case the client decides to cancel the project after you’ve invested a significant amount of time. This can be either a flat fee or a percentage of the final amount due. You should also set out what will happen in case of a professional dispute which makes it impossible to carry on with the work.

Round the contract out with an arbitration or mediation clause. Arbitration and mediation are faster, more flexible and a lot cheaper than taking a dispute to court.
In my experience, this following is pretty much a standard clause in freelance contracts:
"Intellectual Property. The Consultant assigns to the Company, without any further payment, all rights known as ‘intellectual property rights’ (such as copyrights, or rights in designs) which arise in relation to any work prepared by the Consultant in the course of carrying out the Services (called ‘Works’) and any ideas or inventions or innovations (called ‘Inventions’) they come up with in the course of carrying out the Services. This applies whatever form those Works or those Inventions take. The Consultant agrees that if they are prevented by law from transferring these things to the Company, they will hold them on the Company’s behalf, on the basis that the law calls ‘on trust’."

Even if you have a term (brief or long-term) of freelance employment sans-contract, it's implicit in your 'verbal' agreement (to engage in the paid work) that you agree to the client using your work as they see fit. Good luck arguing the opposite, especially if you have been paid for the work.

As to termination clauses, from a client perspective they run counter to the attractiveness of employing a freelancer in the first place, unless you are a 'special' talent that warrants them going the extra mile to secure you, and lets be honest most freelancers are not in that category.

CGI Specialist
GreenDispe 4 April 2023 04:30

Lupita, post: 227912, member: 9 a écrit : Hggdjessica, FrelanceUK arranged for a legal expert to offer you and other self-employed workers some advice, on the issues you raised! See the article from the frontpage of FreelanceUK, below --
https://www.free-work.com/en-gb/tech-it/blog/guide-to-freelancing/freelancers-questions-how-to-stop-a-client-from-stealing-my-work.mcdvoice

__

Moore News Ltd - expert care for your editorial needs.
Great article. Very well explained. Thanks for the share.
Oneals3 12 April 2025 05:21

begin by reviewing the contract's termination clause and any applicable legal requirements. If the termination is not in accordance with the contract, you can attempt to negotiate a resolution or, if that fails, Palm Beach County Property Appraiser consider mediation or arbitration. If the dispute cannot be resolved through these means, you may need to seek legal counsel and pursue legal action.