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“告我啊,随便你……” 真的吗?

商业律师 3 回答
几年前,我除了全职做程序员,晚上和周末还会接点小项目。有一次,有人介绍我给一家大型公司,他们运营着全国各地的大型体育场馆和活动场地,为了方便叙述,就叫他们 MARK-1 吧。 **故事开始了** MARK-1 的一位经理说,他们需要一个简单的管理数据库和用户界面来管理员工的出勤。之前的系统不太好用。我了解了他们的需求,起草了一份详细的规格说明,然后告诉他们,我可以按规格说明来开发这个系统,一口价 2000 美元。他们同意了。 我马上就开始工作,花了大约两周时间,完成了数据库和用户界面,还编写了完整的文档。然后我安排了一次当面演示。 结果,开会的时候,安保部门的人也来了,还问我能不能加一些额外的功能。我说没问题,我可以做。 于是我回去写了变更请求,把额外的功能整合到系统里。几天后,我再次和 MARK-1 开会。这次参会的人更多了,多了两个财务部门的人。 “你能加上 X 功能、Y 功能和 Z 功能吗?” 他们问。 “当然,没问题。” 我又回去写变更请求,添加了这些功能。几天后,我又和他们开会了。更让我惊讶的是,参会人数又增加了,新来的人又要求添加更多的功能。 这种情况持续了大约五轮,我开始感到沮丧,原本计划两周完成的项目,现在已经拖了好几个月。而且,只有在交付(并被他们接受)最终产品后,我才能拿到钱。但我还是硬着头皮,继续完成他们所有的变更请求。 有一天,MARK-1 的经理给我打电话,说她和其他部门的人聊过了,那些部门的人没有参加过我们那些人数越来越多的会议。她给了我一份包含几十个新功能的清单,有些功能甚至需要完全重新设计核心数据库,并彻底修改用户界面。 我终于忍无可忍了。我说:“这完全颠覆了最初的规格说明。我需要从头开始重新设计和构建这个系统。” “那不是我的问题。” 她回答说。 “不,这其实是你的问题。在你支付我目前这个按照我们最初商定的规格说明构建的系统的费用之前,我是不会设计和构建一个全新的系统的。” 短暂的沉默后,她突然给我泼了一盆冷水:“我们不会重新谈判的。你可以认为这个项目取消了。” “事情不是这样运作的。你还是要支付我已经完成的工作的费用。” “不,我不需要。你什么都没交付。你去告我吧。” 然后她就挂断了电话。 是时候开始恶意遵从了。 **法庭见** 我听从了 MARK-1 经理的建议,第二天就去法院提起小额诉讼,要求 MARK-1 支付 2000 美元。几个月后,到了开庭那天,我去了法院,一位仲裁员接待了我。在我们州,法院会安排仲裁员在诉讼当事人到达时与他们会面,看看双方能否达成协议解决纠纷,从而最大限度地节省法官的时间。 仲裁员问我:“你愿意接受任何条件来立即解决这个问题吗?” 我想了想,说:“如果他们现在支付 90% 的费用,也就是 1800 美元,我就撤诉。” 然后他走进了一间侧房,MARK-1 的经理和公司律师正在那里等候。我听到她在尖叫,说他们要么“全额支付,要么一分钱都不付!” 仲裁员回来告诉我这个消息,我说:“我听到了,我很乐意拿走全部的钱。” 他笑着说不行,他们想上法庭。 几个小时过去了(“过去”这个词用在这里挺滑稽的,考虑到法庭的效率有多慢),我们站在了法官面前。我独自一人坐在我的桌子旁,MARK-1 的经理和律师站在对面的桌子旁。 法官让 MARK-1 的经理先讲述她的版本。她开始长篇大论地讲述关于项目、美国企业、苹果派和热核武器的故事,说实话,我从 28 分钟前就停止听了。她滔滔不绝地讲了至少 30 分钟。 然后法官让我讲述我的故事。我并不是故意不听 MARK-1 经理冗长的政治阴谋和爱国主义故事,我实际上是在制定策略。我想法官可能每天都要听很多人在他面前滔滔不绝地讲话。我还觉得,他可能会喜欢一个简短明了的故事,直奔主题,不浪费他的时间。 所以我说:“法官大人,他们同意支付我 2000 美元来为他们设计和构建一个软件系统。我按照商定的规格说明完成了工作,然后在我已经完成工作后,他们决定取消项目。” 就这些。 然后法官问我:“我怎么知道你完成了工作?” 我前一天晚上把规格说明、变更请求、文档和源代码都打印了出来。我从桌子上拿起一叠纸(500 页),递给了法警。“这是我为他们编写的代码,法官大人。” 法警过来想从我手里拿走,法官挥手示意他不用:“不用了,我从这里就能看到。” 然后法官问 MARK-1 的经理:“这是真的吗?” 她看起来有点茫然。“额......是的......” “那么,我判原告胜诉,获得 2000 美元。” **去他妈的,给钱!** 大约一个月后,MARK-1 仍然没有付款。所以我打电话给县治安官,解释了情况。我把法院的判决书发给了他,他说:“没问题,他们会付款的。” 治安官当天晚些时候真的给我打来了电话。他用手机打的,我能听到他和 MARK-1 经理的对话。他告诉她现在就开一张 2000 美元的支票,否则他就要“把你们的电脑从墙上拆下来拍卖,直到还清判决为止。” 我不知道他是否有这个权力,但治安官似乎对 MARK-1 有意见,他很乐意去为难他们。 显然,MARK-1 相信他有这个权力,因为——长话短说——大约 15 分钟后,治安官手里拿着一张 2000 美元的支票,大约一周后,这张支票就出现在了我的邮箱里。
回答次数 (3)
K
Kryptonian2
# 3
Once a health insurance company tried to deny a claim that they should have paid. My husband filed in small claims and named the CEO of the company. He knows more about the laws than they do and knows when they have messed up.

They paid up pretty pronto and sent us a letter apologizing and blaming a software error (rather than their shitty policies that assume 99 percent of people won't fight and will just pay).

We live in MA and there is a law whereby you can dispute a refusal of payment by a health insurance company and the company has to answer back within a certain time (can't remember how many days....30????) and if they don't then the charge disappears. Works for us every time they mess up. We know they can't fix the mistake because then they would have to fix their systems. We know the law and will not budge.
T
TitaniumSteel
# 2
This reminds me of some fellow I worked with over 20 years ago who agreed to do a contacting project, I am not sure the specs, but it was agreed that he and two people who worked for him would charge the client $100k on delivery of the final product. Similar take: they kept moving the goalposts of defining "final product," until he said, "no more changes until you pay for the ones we did." Client canceled the contract, but made the mistake of claiming they had never heard of him to the judge in court. So he brought a laptop, and showed the judge the finished product, which the client was actually using as their web front end.

"Oh, that's a test web site, not the real one. It doesn't count."

"So... he did do the work. You HAVE heard of him?" The judge found the client responsible for $100k plus court costs.

Client refused to pay. Claimed to have paid, the check was declined, declined check was cashed, they can't pay him because he was from a foreign country due to 9/11 (he was from the same Maryland county they were, not foreign at all), all sorts of changing stories. So he went back to court, got an sheriff involved, and sheriff came and seized a lot of the client's assets and auctioned them off. The client tried to pretend nobody was in the office, and fled out the back door like a secret door in a treehouse fort, so the sheriff was unimpeded in the seizure. Ther client went out of business, because part of the seizure was their SBO servers, and this was before cloud backups were a thing.
B
Brian2
# 1
I also have a story about "sue me"

So i was starting a new job at a small family owned business of 15, never given a contract and when i asked about it they gave excuses like this lady is sick bla bla bla.

In my country, there's a probation period of 1 month in which both parties can opt out of the work agreement any time for any reason. After this month, there are notice periods.
After 5 weeks, i get called into the office where they tell me I'm not a good fit for them and they are letting me go under the "agreed upon 3 months probation", which i had never heard of.

So i called my lawyer and asked for clarification, she said that 1 month probation is the legal maximum and that they owe me a lengthy notice period.

So i call the Owner and state that they owe me this, and she just says "no we agreed to bla bla bla and if you don't like it WE'LL SEE EACH OTHER AT COURT"

So this is exactly what i did. I went to my lawyer, gave her all the information and she sent out a payment request, totalling about 7k€ plus her lawyer costs. After we received no answer we filed a claim at the labour court.

2 court dates go by, where the second one the oposing party didn't even show up. Its clear they wanna drag it out and for me to rack up fees so that its not worth it and i push back, little did they know i have law insurance that covers all my court and lawyer fees even if I am the one suing.

At the third court date, just 2 weeks ago they come to us with a settlement proposal, 6500€ plus all court fees. My lawyer negotiated that her fees would also be included and we accepted. Judge got notified and we are now waiting for them to pay, deadline is the end of this month.

Total cost to them: around 10k€.
I really really wanted to thank the Owner for her Idea of us seeing each other at court, but i chose to be civil and was just happy i got what i wanted.
北美法律通