All is well that ends well. I bet you are glad you never pressed send on that spleen venting letter...
If it's ok with you, I'd like to share a few thoughts about written agreements. The following is just my opinion and it is basically worth what you paid for it.
So you create this agreement or contract, you both provide input, you finalize it, you both sign and date it, and you each keep a copy. Everyone is happy.
Life is great and then something changes. Maybe ability to pay, maybe some major change in scope, maybe input costs change, or maybe someone hits financial problems.
In the best of worlds, this gets discussed, the agreement is revised, and life goes on.
Sometimes it's a little more rocky than that, but again life goes on just the same.
But.... what if agreement can't be reached? What if the bills pile up but no cheques arrive?
No problem you say, "I have a written agreement - you have to pay". And the other party goes silent. Now what? Hire a lawyer for 10x what the contract is worth? Five years later you might settle for 5 cents on the dollar and that doesn't cover the lawyers cost...... Not good...... Not good at all!
In my view, contracts protect nothing unless you can afford the legal costs to defend them. And very very few can.
So my advice is simple. By all means, write the agreement. But don't expect that to protect you - cuz it won't. Instead, use it as a mechanism to improve mutual understanding of cost, expectations, and deliverables. Not as a protection mechanism.
At the end of the day, absolutely everything depends on the integrity of the individuals. Focus on the relationship, keep communication open and frequent, manage expectations, and minimize surprises. An agreement can help facilitate that, but unless you can afford the legal costs, it won't protect you from a bad situation.
A word about legal costs. You can get an opinion for very little. But real work will start with at least 20k just to get going and several hundred k to finish. It's important to recognize this reality BEFORE you start racking up the bill. If you can't afford to finish the fight, don't start the fight. Just walk away. Live and learn as they say.
There are always going to be a few people out there that you will wish you never met. But I think the majority of people are good willed. Walk away from the bad ones and celebrate the good ones.
