127: How to Handle Cancellations Like A Pro

The Legal Paige® Podcast

In Episode #127 of the podcast, I discuss Contract Cancellations and how to best go about them with clients (whether its because your clients want or need to cancel, or you’re needing to cancel for some reason). Obviously this issue is a touchy subject because no one ever intends to enter into a contract to terminate it before all parties have completed their performance. Also, sometimes cancelling can lead to bad tastes in clients mouths, yucky feelings all around, and bad reviews (which is the worst case scenario). So we want to talk to you about how to handle these situations from a legal perspective, also with the utmost customer service, so that you can drastically reduce your risk of getting into more trouble later down the road.

The Legal Paige Shownotes

Episode Highlights

• How to handle cancellations from a legal perspective.
• Why customer service is still extremely important during these types of situations.
• How you can drastically reduce your risk of getting into more trouble later on down the road.
• Which legal documents you are going to want to add to your legal toolkit going forward.
• And so much more!

Worth Noting

"If you're absolutely just done with the client and you can't work with them anymore. You need to give them a full refund, including their entire retainer. You also need to try to have them sign a cancellation agreement. This is in particular because the cancellation agreement has a couple of clauses in it that I'm going to talk about in a little bit, that will save you, hopefully from any type of like defamatory statements or reviews online."

- Paige on what to do when you are canceling the contract as the service provider.

"In your cancellation clause, you need to have a notice of provision. That the client needs to cancel within X amount of days, or they forfeit all payments and the retainer. Then we also recommend that you make your retainer non-refundable so that if there is a cancellation by the client, you at least get the retainer for your services."

- Paige's advice on what to have in your cancellation contract should the client want to cancel.

"No matter if you're the one canceling or your clients are canceling, you always want to make sure you try to get your clients to sign a cancellation agreement. I do not believe just an email is sufficient. It's a good starting point, but I want you to try to get them to sign terms related to how you both are deciding to cancel and terminate the contract. Also a cancellation agreement, always supersedes any written or oral agreements between you and the client, and it releases you of any further obligations to your client."

- Paige's advice on why sending a cancellation agreement is important.

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