Any contract lawyers here up for a quick pro bono consult?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

I do on-site computer repair/software upgrade work. I was recently brought in on the tail-end of a dicey problem: This real estate person had once worked for a major company, but had quit to start his own home business. The problem was, he had kept the company's proprietary software on his PC, and the computer was now starting to crash.

This type of software is fairly common-- on-staff software engineers design and maintain it, and it's very specialized. To install it, it's common to require a "key diskette" which will either allow a single install, or a limited number of installs. It cannot be copied by using any imaging software. Without this diskette, which is hand-issued by the company, the software cds are useless. The information databases built by these programs are typically encrypted, so you can't just browse them by using Access, Excel, etc.

The man I sometimes work with had come in and upgraded said Win98 machine to Win2K, and the illegal softare immediately stopped working, and this man's database of contacts instantly became inaccessable. My buddy had to leave to start another job, so he called me in to do what I could do, and of course, there was nothing to be done. After playing around enough to make certain, it was left to me to bill the man. He promptly freaked, saying that we had screwed his machine up, and why should he pay us?

I talked him down, and he eventually wrote a check for two hours of work, but he was still so agitated I put it on his desk and told him if he felt better tomorrow he could give me the check then. (He never did, and so I got screwed for an aftenoon's time.)


So... I am attempting to write a little letter of understanding for the customer to sign before I do any future work on such machines. It spells out the dangers of data loss while doing work on proprietary database software (never EVER using the word "illegal"). I just need to know if I'm on the right track or not, and if what I'm trying would stand up in any legal sense. I'm looking for phraseology, etc. I basically want to protect myself, and get paid for my time when it's over!

Any contract lawyers up for a quick look? (I can post what I have here, or PM it if that would be better.)

[Bossy Monkey]

1. Kick to give the morning crew a look