Certainly, if you do the work, you should get paid and on time.

The one thing I’d push back on is that for it to make sense to hire a lawyer, the unpaid amount has to be very large.

Lawyers typically charge hundreds of dollars an hour, and if you’re going to sue and end up in court, you’re lucky if it doesn’t cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Doing this over even $5000 is foolish, since there’s no guarantee you’ll win, even if you should win.

In some cases, a lawyer will take you on and have their payment be contingent on success, but in this sort of situation that’s unlikely unless your case is iron clad and the amount to be collected is very high.

The bottom line is that you should follow your other tips and get paid before doing the work, so there should never be the risk of not getting paid.

Anytime you get to court, both sides have high risks and high costs.