I think you might be on slighty slippery ground there... you might want to consult some more professional advice.
Firstly, in most states you have to stipulate in your
original contract that late payments will be subject to late charges. The verbage is something like "Vendor reserves the right to levy monthly finance charges on unpaid balances up to the maximum allowed by law." If you
don't stip
in advance that late charges are in the mix, the client is in no way obligated to pay
any late fees, no matter how long they take to pay. They could take
years to pay, but if you took them to court and won all you would be awarded is the original invoice amount.
Secondly, your amount of your late fee will come into question. I belive you said you charged an extra 10% after they were late after the initial 30 day period. A 10% late fee for 30 days is 120% a year. Some would call that loansharking... the legal term is "usury." Note that the above stipultion said "...up to the maximum allowed by law." That maximum is usually around 2% a month... or 24-25% a year. Title pawn places and those sleazeball advance-check-cashing outfits get around that due to some loopholes (which are thankfully closing in many places), but most of the time you can't legally charge more than that.
I'd strongly suggest consulting with your CPA (or even your attorney) before adding those kind of late charges, especially if they have not been discussed
before the job was contracted.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
