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You have just stumbled across one of those dirty little secrets of
freelance writing. Truth is, IMHO, the odds of you or your client being
sued because of something you wrote are infinitesimal. And, the odds of a
jury of your peers actually holding you personally liable -- NILL.
However, the odds of YOU wanting to sue your potential client because they
just happen to fail to pay you for the last XXX hours of your work -- I'd
put THAT at 50%. And, the odds of them worrying that the IRS will get
upset with them for employing you 100% of the time but count you as a
contractor -- 99 44/100%. (Which is why I am incorporated, but that's a
whole other story.)
Which is why, I believe, many of these companies go through what they call
"approved providers". You end up in a 3rd party contract (that is, you
sign a contract with the approved provider and the approved provider signs
the contract with your actual employer). You get paid slower (because your
employer pays the approved provider and the approved provider won't pay you
until the check clears). You have less recourse if your client doesn't
pay, and you have to sit and stew if your client or your approved provider
doesn't pay promptly -- which WILL happen at some time in the life of any
relatively long contract.
On the other hand, there are quite a number of very big employers of tech
writers who work this way and only this way. And I've enjoyed working on
quite a few of these projects. (Until that last, extremely large, check --
which did not arrive for months and months and months and months. But it
did ALWAYS arrive eventually, sometimes after legal intervention...)
NWU offers liability insurance, which ought to cover you in this
regard. But when I've told some of these clients I was going to purchase
it, and could we then go direct? -- they routinely have upped the coverage
amount required. Because there are many advantages to THEM to forcing you
to go the approved provider route.
So, I say -- if you want/need the job, sign with one of the approved
providers on their list. You'll get the hourly amount you wanted and they
will add their percentage on the top. Might want to get a retainer for the
last several weeks up front, though.
Good luck!
--Emily
On Wed, 2 May 2001 07:58:37 -0500, "Tommy Green" <tom -dot- green -at- iwon -dot- com> wrote:
.. I just interviewed for an Oil and Gas company and I'm very interested
in working
there. Now, I am trying to go independent and wanted to do so here but,
they told me I need to have the "2 million dollar" insurance and suggested
I go through a temp agency, and gave me a list. ...
Now, I have never worked for a temp agency and personally don't like the
idea of someone else making money off of my work. I don't need benefits,
just money. However, is there a way I can get my own insurance? This is
something like Workers Comp insurance or being bonded, I'm not sure. ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ Emily Berk ~
On the web at www.armadillosoft.com *** Armadillo Associates, Inc. ~
~ Project management, developer relations and ~
extremely-technical technical documentation that developers find useful.~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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