CSA (Client Service Agreement) is the best way to insure your paycheck when something unexpected happens before, during or after a scheduled photoshoot.
Read this important advice from IP lawyer Rachel Rodgers and make sure you’ll find out more about the Client Service Agreement right away. It’s always a good idea to be prepared.
Before we get into what a CSA should contain, let’s first take a brief trip down scenario lane so you get a good idea of what we mean about covering your tuckus in case things go wrong. If we lawyers know anything (and we don’t know much), it’s that everything’s all smiles and giggles until somebody’s wedding photos get lost in the cloud storage ether, or someone else demands a full refund because the head-shots you spent three hours shooting and imaging “just don’t look right.” Take it from us, whenever somebody is paying somebody else for a service, especially a service like photography where the outcome can be pretty subjective, things can get all Judge Judy real fast. People have certain expectations about the outcomes of products and services that they pay for (as they should), and unfortunately, sometimes those expectations are unreasonable. If you have your policies clearly set forth in a CSA, you’ll have something concrete to point to when someone comes complaining about the work that you produced, making unreasonable demands.
But, CSAs aren’t just for governing complaints from unreasonable clients. CSAs also exist to inform your clients – at the get-go – of how your engagement as their photographer will proceed, and what they should expect from the relationship. By having a CSA in place, your client has some peace of mind in knowing when, how, and at what cost you will perform your services and deliver your product. Likewise, you have peace of mind knowing that you have a legal document to lean on if their payment is late, or you make a mistake, or a seagull makes off with your lens during a beach wedding shoot.
- What happens when a client fails to show up at their appointment?
- How many calls/emails/meetings with you can the client expect?
- When and how will the photos be delivered?
- When and how will the client pay you?
- What happens if payment is late?
- Will you provide hair and makeup?
- What rights to the photos is the client purchasing?
- What are the terms of the client’s license to use the photos?
You know when you are asked to sign a contract, or some kind of release, and you skim through the top bits, then you get to the bottom part, where the words get long and tiny and sound like they were written four hundred years ago, so you just stop reading and sign the damn thing already? Well, all of that stuff – the stuff you never read – that’s called “boilerplate” and it’s actually a really important part of your CSA. The boilerplate bit is the bit that controls what happens when the parties to the agreement (that’s you and your client) disagree.
Read the full article over at Digital Photography School.
Source: Digital Photography School
Savannah Labie