OT - what to do when a client sets a financial cap long after you took the job

[Patrick Fleming, EA]

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Technomage-hawke wrote:
> I'm in a bit of a quandary here guys and I need a little advice.

> 
> today, they informed him that there would be a $1,000 cap on any work done. 
> However, he has altready done over $4,800 in work.

The Public Defender's office doesn't usually have a very large budget to
work with. If it were me I would tell them how much work had already
been completed and ask if they want to continue. I'm going to guess that
if there is evidence on the drive that is exculpatory then the defendant
has the right to have that presented. Not presenting it sets up the
defendant for appeals for ineffective counsel (IMHO).

Of course next time, he will have a signed contract - or be on retainer
of some kind.

> 
> He asked me what I would do in this case (since thats not my line of work 
> presently, I was unsure how to proceed):
> 1. require the pay the entire sum (and possibly give up any future contracts 
> from the P.D.'s Office)
> 2. take a hit on his business (tax loss - not recommended by him anyway)
> 3. eat the remaining and take the $1,000

As for point 2, unless he has paid someone else for the time such as an
employee or a sub-contractor or if he is using the accrual method of
accounting *and* is in a different tax year than when he started the
project there is no "tax hit". And even in the case where he paid
someone else, he has a monetary transaction that my affect his taxes,
but is not a "hit" per se.

This time, he has to determine whether they want to continue the work or
not - perhaps under a negotiated lower price.
> 
> some help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> BTW, in a way this is linux related as the software he is using (FTK) is 
> running under vmware on a linux platform.
> 
> anyway, some helpful (and time sensitive) advice is needed here.
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