Unpaid Freelance Invoices · Step by Step
Your client won't pay. Here's what to do, in order.
A New York attorney's playbook for freelancers chasing an invoice.
The invoice is past due, the emails get vaguer, and the client is suddenly very busy. New York freelancers now have one of the strongest collection statutes in the country behind them. Work the steps in order: most invoices get paid at step three or four, long before any courtroom.
Provided through DemandLetterNY.com, a service of Hochman Law PC.
First: how strong is your position?
NY GEN. BUS. LAW ART. 44-A · FREELANCE ISN'T FREE ACT
Stronger than you think. If you worked as a 1099 contractor for a client and are owed $800 or more (alone or across 120 days of work for that client), the Freelance Isn't Free Act applies statewide. Nonpayment can entitle you to double the unpaid amount plus your attorney's fees. You are not begging for a favor. You are the creditor of someone violating a statute.
Step 1: Build the paper trail this week.
- Collect every writing: the contract or proposal, emails and texts agreeing to scope and price, the invoice, delivery of the work, and every promise to pay.
- Screenshot chats and DMs now; clients delete accounts.
- Write a one-page timeline: what was agreed, when you delivered, when payment was due, every follow-up.
- Total the number precisely: fee owed, plus any late-payment term in your contract.
Step 2: One clean written demand from you.
Send a short, unemotional email: the amount, the due date that passed, a firm deadline (7 days is common), and a sentence that you are prepared to enforce your rights under the Freelance Isn't Free Act. No threats you will not keep, no essays. This email is partly for the client and partly for the record: it shows a court you acted reasonably.
Step 3: The attorney demand letter.
This is where most matters end. A letter on law firm letterhead does what fifty of your emails cannot: it prices the dispute for the client. Under the Act, refusing to pay your $4,000 invoice means risking $8,000, plus paying your lawyer and theirs. A rational business pays. See exactly what a Freelance Isn't Free Act demand letter contains, or compare the paths in demand letter vs. small claims.
Step 4: Complaint or court.
If the letter is ignored, two roads remain, and neither forfeits the other later: an administrative complaint to the state (how the complaint route works) or a lawsuit, which for most freelance invoices means small claims court, where you can appear without a lawyer. The demand letter you sent in step 3 becomes Exhibit A.
"But we never had a contract."
The Act required the client to give you a written contract. Its absence is their violation, and your emails, invoices, and delivered work can establish the terms. Do not let a client's "nothing was in writing" line scare you off; it tends to backfire on them. Full answer here: no written contract, now what?
What not to do.
- Do not keep working for a client who has stopped paying, hoping the balance shames them into catching up.
- Do not accept a "settle for half and we'll pay today" text under deadline pressure; the Act specifically addresses clients who condition timely payment on a discount after work has begun.
- Do not trash the client publicly while the debt is open; keep the record clean and businesslike.
- Do not wait. Statutes of limitations apply, memories fade, and businesses dissolve.
A flat-fee demand letter drafted and signed by a New York attorney often resolves it without a lawsuit. Start online at DemandLetterNY.com, a service of Hochman Law PC, or learn more about flat-fee demand letters.
Questions people ask us.
How long should I wait after the invoice due date?
Not long. Payment under the Act is due by the contract date or within 30 days of completing the work. Once that passes, the violation exists; a short grace follow-up is courtesy, not obligation.
The client says the work was bad. Does that defeat my claim?
A genuine quality dispute is a defense they can raise, but vague dissatisfaction that first appears after the invoice arrives is common and rarely persuasive, especially when they accepted and used the work. Your delivery records matter.
The client is outside New York. Can I still use the Act?
It can depend on where the hiring party is and where the work was performed. An attorney can assess it quickly, and other claims (breach of contract, account stated) exist regardless.
Can they retaliate by blacklisting me?
Retaliation against a freelancer for exercising rights under the Act is itself a violation with its own remedies. Keep evidence of any threat made after you asked to be paid.
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