I’m glad to hear that you’ve finally been paid.

I completely agree with all your suggested actions to ensure a freelancer gets paid on time.

The only point I’d add is that at some point, you need to consider the cost-benefit ratio of going to even small claims court.

If you can weather the loss of expected payment, and if you have other gigs that you could work on instead of wasting more time on a bad client (by suing them), your time and emotional energy may be better spent on productive work.

This not because the so -called client should get away with not paying as agreed. Rather because it’s better for you to write him off if you can afford to do so.

I once had to make that choice over $5k, and decided that after accounting for the tax implication, I’d be better off writing off that money rather than waste the time, effort, and energy pursuing the scammer. Especially given that you never know for sure in advance how a court will rule.