In Ukraine, any failure to fulfill an obligation is a personal insult and long-term lawsuits to the point of exhaustion. Although in more developed business communities, it is common to take advantage of the counterparty's mistakes when drafting contracts.
It's not that I want to teach everyone bad things - to behave in bad faith and not fulfill their obligations. I will try to exaggerate the consequences of "not bothering" with contracts. Below, the risks are listed in ascending order from "Captain Obvious" to the highest level of dishonesty.
Why do I even need a contract?
You have a small company, you receive orders on Elance, the money comes to your private entrepreneur account in group 3. You withdraw money from the account and pay the programmers. In our world of information technology, a contract has remained only as an optional atavism. But here's the problem: many years later, a claim comes to you from a dissatisfied developer demanding that you return the fee received. It turned out that one of your long-fired developers took the code with him and posted an app in the AppStore similar to what you made for the client. And now the client is justifiably unhappy. And he is unhappy with you, because you took on the obligation to transfer the intellectual property rights to the software you created to the client. Or did you not read the standard Elance contract? If you did not sign a contract with your programmer, on the basis of which he transferred the rights to the software to you, you will lose this stigma.
Sue in the USA
When receiving an order from a huge status company, you will not resist considering any disputes in the USA, will you? At the same time, a large customer has the right to expect due respect: payment after acceptance of the work, for example. And when you have completed the work, but the customer does not pay for it even after a million kind reminders, you or your lawyers will reread the contract and will definitely point out to you the difficulties with legal proceedings in the USA. Not even that there are difficulties. It's just that Ukrainian law does not apply in the US by definition, and your Ukrainian lawyers will not be able to help you. And in the US, a lawsuit is much more expensive than a lawsuit in Ukraine: an hour of a lawyer's work is more expensive, and the legal costs are much more significant. For example, to collect a debt of $100K, you will spend $70-80K, which, of course, you can impose on the debtor (if you win the case).
Litigation in Ukraine
What could be more predictable than an unpredictable Ukrainian court coupled with ambiguous Ukrainian legislation? And now add to this the debtor's lack of assets. Any. An office is rented, money in the account is only for paying this very rent. The only assets are contracts with developers, a domain and reputation. Even if you win a lawsuit "in one touch" (this is a slang legal expression that defines winning a case in a court of first instance in one session. As a rule, by chance, but some trial lawyers may naively consider this their merit), you will not be able to collect anything.
Budgeting
There is an expression among clients of law firms: "we need to win at any cost." Different lawyers perceive this phrase differently. For some, this is an instruction to corrupt the judge, for others - a signal to turn on creative thinking, responsible for juggling legal norms. In the first case, there is little that can be added to what everyone already knows. The second option is more interesting: what grounds can you not find in judicial practice if "the case must be won at any cost." For example, a contract can be declared invalid if the consent of your spouse (or your husband) was not obtained when it was concluded, or, if you suddenly have children, then the guardianship authority. Not any contract, of course, but by the happy end of the one that is most dear to you.
If you can't change the circumstances, change the perception
To land the Curiosity apparatus on Mars is a difficult task, but to force the counterparty to terminate the contract itself is a simple task. In order to get rid of a programmer who is prohibitively expensive during a crisis, it is enough to simply not give him work - then he will simply have nothing to write in the act of work performed. And how to kick out tenants from your building who pay "pre-crisis" prices in hryvnia, and in response to your greedy attempts to adjust the price to the dollar exchange rate, show you a signed contract? It is enough to put a couple of gravestones instead of the reception, turn on sad music, surround everything with coffins and wreaths. For those who consider this the result of the author's (i.e. me) sick legal fantasy - google it and I guarantee, the reputation of my fantasy will be restored.
