> Contracts that totally indemnify a company in a situation like this shouldn't be enforceable.
I definitely agree that as more people find themselves freelancing, we need to establish better legal protections for freelancers.
Lots of indemnity clauses are just ridiculous. Here's how to get over-broad indemnity clauses removed:
"Hey, I noticed you had some unusually strong indemnity clauses in your contract, which would require my company to cover your costs in situations X, Y and Z, which are outside of our control. As a general rule, we're not in the insurance business—we leave that to Lloyd's of London (laugh). But if this is important to you, I can look into purchasing a special insurance rider to cover these issues. This will delay the start date a bit and will obviously have an effect on the costs; I can get you a quote if you're interested. If not, we could replace this with <suggest standard, fair language here>."
If they're not willing to either (a) pay extra for the insurance they want, or (b) swap out the indemnity clause for something more neutral, then you walk. The only way to work for good clients is to discipline yourself to walk away from the bad ones. (Also, charge more, require a payment up front, and always quote daily or weekly rates, never hourly. This will improve the quality of your clients dramatically.)
Anybody who insists on broad indemnity clauses should be paying enterprise rates and the contracts should be reviewed by lawyers for both sides.
Another good approach is to pay to have your own standard contract drafted (without anything obnoxious in it), and send it to the client.
I definitely agree that as more people find themselves freelancing, we need to establish better legal protections for freelancers.
Lots of indemnity clauses are just ridiculous. Here's how to get over-broad indemnity clauses removed:
"Hey, I noticed you had some unusually strong indemnity clauses in your contract, which would require my company to cover your costs in situations X, Y and Z, which are outside of our control. As a general rule, we're not in the insurance business—we leave that to Lloyd's of London (laugh). But if this is important to you, I can look into purchasing a special insurance rider to cover these issues. This will delay the start date a bit and will obviously have an effect on the costs; I can get you a quote if you're interested. If not, we could replace this with <suggest standard, fair language here>."
If they're not willing to either (a) pay extra for the insurance they want, or (b) swap out the indemnity clause for something more neutral, then you walk. The only way to work for good clients is to discipline yourself to walk away from the bad ones. (Also, charge more, require a payment up front, and always quote daily or weekly rates, never hourly. This will improve the quality of your clients dramatically.)
Anybody who insists on broad indemnity clauses should be paying enterprise rates and the contracts should be reviewed by lawyers for both sides.
Another good approach is to pay to have your own standard contract drafted (without anything obnoxious in it), and send it to the client.