Hi. I’ve been doing translation and script work for a Taiwanese woman for already a few years. I’ve had payment issues with her in the past, but generally after long waiting periods, she relents and finally wires money to my bank. The latest round of non-payment has now been ongoing for 6 months and unless something magically changes, I’m afraid this time I’m going to have to take legal action. Does anybody have any similar experience, advice, or even a contact for a good lawyer in Taipei?
Thanks!
I am one of the few people who got payment in full of translation fees overdue from my former “boss” [I’ll omit his name here]. I didn’t end up threatening legal action, but rather went the “soft” route – basically lied to him that I had circumstances back home that required the money urgently, and yes, I would take post-dated checks. Every month I’d take the check directly to his bank and cash it on the date it was written for, and every month he or one of his office people would call me and plead for me not to cash it because it would throw them into financial ruin, etc. etc. I always cashed them and as far as I know, the office didn’t go under because of me. Now, it DID go under in the end, but you know how karma is.
I guess my point is maybe try or greatly step up the pressure from the indirect approach first, before going “hard”. It’s a pain to sue people (though possible) and you never know what’s going to happen in one of those cases, no matter how clear it seems that she owes you money.
Since you say she’s an individual, I take it that posting or threatening to post non-payment information to translators’ sites wouldn’t do much.
The first step to a small claims lawsuit is filing a Post Office Evidentiary Letter, which (at least for us small fry) involves going to the Post Office and buying the special paper these are written on, then copying your threat of a lawsuit out three times. One is kept by the Post Office if I recall, one gets sent to the target, and you get one. It’s not actually suing someone but sometimes if people receive one, they realize or assume that you do in fact know what you’re doing and they might better pay up. Sometimes.
My best advice, though, as a translator (and I know this is hindsight at this point) is to never let clients get very far ahead of you financially. Your doing their latest “urgent case” is always conditioned on their account being brought current before you can begin, because regrettably that’s what your business manager/accountant/elderly parent/wife/husband is insisting on.
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I’m not a translator but I am a freelance editor. I always demand at least a 50% upfront payment before I do the work. That way I know I’ll get something for my work.
Surprisingly, I’ve never had anyone refuse the upfront payment but a lot of my work comes from referrals so that might have something to do with it.
Whatever the outcome, never do business with this person again.
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You can always get a free (brief) consultation at the Legal Aid Foundation.
If your assets and income and low enough, you can also ask them to take on your case (representing you in court).
Aside from the LAF, Taipei City Hall provides free consultations during the week, and other local governments may offer this service as well.
As for filing a civil suit over non-payment, the key is evidence, plain and simple evidence, in Chinese if possible. Make sure the type of contract is clear (hire of work, mandate, publication…) and check the relevant section of the Civil Code for a rough idea of each party’s rights & obligations.
Whether the case falls under small claims, summary, or “normal” depends on how much money is at stake and a few other factors (explained in that monster of a law, the Code of Civil Procedure). If possible, find a certified mediator first; otherwise the court will probably order mediation (up to three times) before holding a trial, and you’ll have to pay for it.
(Any labor department can arrange free mediation for a “labor-management dispute”, which is normally for an employment i.e. “hire of services” contract. I’m not sure if they take cases that are unambiguously non-employment, but you can ask.)
If the mediator persuades both parties to accept a settlement, it’s binding in the manner of a final court judgement, so if you still don’t get paid after that, the next step is to ask the court to seize the other party’s assets.
Expect the system to be slow and headache-inducing, and of course judgements can be appealed… 
So yeah, going “soft” may be better, depending on the circumstances.
I don’t know the specific situation, but based on my general experience with this type of translation in Taiwan, I’d be surprised if there was a contract between the parties, much less one stating specific amounts of money. Usually jobs just come in sporadically on a piecework basis, and then (unless there’s some mechanism for a hefty deposit) you chase down the money with more or less success, depending on whether the client is a business or organization direct client (good pay, usually better chances for payment), an actual agency (lower rates but sometimes easier payment channels) or an individual (depends on the ethics of the person and to some degree their cash flow, since often they’re spending money they don’t have to get work done, which is why they’re not a business in the first place.)
I can’t think of more than a handful of times there was any formal contract for a translation I did for a Taiwanese client, and those were usually large, discrete projects like books or major documents for something or other.
Any emails or texts would provide at least some evidence of what pay was agreed on. But the OP also needs to consider whether he is ready to admit he is providing translation services on a freelance basis – depending on his visa status and what any official who got that information into his hands had for breakfast that day, that could (or could not) be a problem. It’s a huge gray area and usually people get by just fine by keeping their heads down and paying their taxes just in case.
So the OP might want to balance the amount of money owed and the willingness to take actual legal action against the inconvenience, irritation and potential to get into tax or immigration trouble (which depends on a lot of factors and is not a certainty). The debtor could potentially use any of these to put in even an anonymous report to the tax authorities, and the OP would have to show up for a hearing and so on, entirely separate from the issue of payment from the client.
When I say contract I mean the legal concept of a “contract”, i.e. the agreement between the two parties, whether or not it’s in writing. (Some types of contract do need to be in writing.)
I won’t go into it again right now, but I believe freelance work is not a gray area. You either have open work rights or don’t have them, and whether the tax people care or not is another question.
I should have mentioned that if you win all or part of a civil suit the judge will order the losing party to pay all or part of the “litigation expenses”, but that basically means whatever the court charges (which depends on how much money you’re asking the other party for), not what your lawyer charges, which is likely to be in the 10’s of thousands if it’s not free.
The good news is you don’t actually need to appear in person at the hearing(s) if you have a lawyer, unless the judge orders you to appear anyway.