Consultants & Developers · Unpaid Invoices
The engagement ended. The invoice didn't get paid.
A New York attorney's guide for consultants, developers, and fractional professionals.
Consulting nonpayment is polite right up until it isn't: the Slack goes quiet, the invoice "is with finance," the champion who hired you leaves. Meanwhile your work product is running their business. New York gives independent consultants a statute most of them have never invoked, and its numbers change the conversation.
Provided through DemandLetterNY.com, a service of Hochman Law PC.
Yes, the Freelance Isn't Free Act covers consultants.
NY GEN. BUS. LAW ART. 44-A · FREELANCE ISN'T FREE ACT
The statewide Act is not just for creatives. It covers freelance services generally: strategy work, software development, fractional CFO and marketing engagements, technical consulting: when performed as an independent contractor for $800 or more (alone or across 120 days for the same client). Solo operators billing through a single-member LLC are generally covered too. Payment was due by the contract date or within 30 days of completing the work; after that, exposure is double the unpaid amount plus attorney's fees.
"It's with finance" and other stalls, decoded.
- "Net-60 is just our policy." Their internal policy does not amend your contract or the statute's 30-day default.
- "Your champion left; we're re-evaluating vendors." Personnel changes do not erase debts for delivered work.
- "We'll pay half now if you discount the rest." The Act specifically targets clients who condition payment on post-work discounts. You can decline from strength.
- "Sign this release and we'll process payment." Read anything they suddenly want signed; do not trade claims away for money already owed.
Developers: the deployed-code question.
If your unpaid code is in production, you hold real leverage, but exercise it the right way. Declining further work, support, and handoff until payment is ordinary commerce. Reaching into systems to disable what you already delivered can expose you to serious claims. The pressure belongs in a letter, not in the codebase.
Collecting without burning the referral.
Consultants worry a demand letter ends the relationship. In practice, the relationship a nonpaying client offers is the one you already have: unpaid. A professional attorney letter is impersonal by design: it lets the client pay "because legal said so" and lets both sides move on. Many engagements survive it; almost none survive you financing the client interest-free forever.
The sequence that gets invoices paid.
Work it in order, from the freelancer playbook: assemble the paper trail, send one clean written demand yourself, then escalate to an attorney demand letter that itemizes the Act's double-damages exposure. If that is ignored, the administrative complaint route and small claims court both remain open. Deadlines are covered in how long you have to act.
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.
I invoice through my LLC. Am I still a 'freelancer' under the Act?
Generally yes: the Act covers individuals and their single-person entities working as independent contractors. Larger firms with employees fall outside it, but ordinary contract claims still apply.
My contract says disputes go to arbitration. Does that kill the statute?
No: it may change the forum, not the rights. A demand letter works the same either way, and most matters resolve before any forum is needed.
The client is a startup that might fold. Should I wait for their next raise?
No. Insolvency risk is the argument for moving now, while there is a company to collect from. Waiting for a funding round that may not come only ages your claim.
Monthly retainer, they skipped two months mid-engagement: one claim or two?
Each unpaid amount past its due date is nonpayment under the Act, and they aggregate. Your demand letter presents the total, with the doubled exposure calculated on all of it.
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