Client threatening to sue (without a contract)

Question

I was appointed a designer post by a company (that seemed big at the time) and based in London. The man they asked me to get in touch with for the work and updates was a sort of celeb here in India. He claimed the company to be making a new label and thus needing my assistance in it. He asked for some samples to be made and handed his own garments. And asked me to source and buy the materials and just hand over the bills and get them reimbursed.

I was happy and made around 5 samples for which he had earlier claimed a 1000 rs per piece which i kept persisting on increasing as its way too low compare to the work put in.

After close to a month he started calling for updates and seemed to get impatient when asked for advance since sticker and flock prints are expensive. He claimed to be 'teaching' me the ways to creative a masterpiece of a garment. I kept asking for advance and reimbursements. But he kept delaying and changing the topic. He later claimed to be giving a full time job with 30000 rs pay (I was already doing a day time job with the same pay and lesser work) I politely refused upon the offer considering how he did not budge from the 1 pc = 1000 rs. And i had to make 30 jackets in a month. He kept implying how i should not ask for more money since i am a "newbie" and am young and should consider my passion and not the pay. He also claimed "Beggars can't be choosers". I felt extremely uncomfortable talking to him let alone explaining why i did not want to be underpaid. So i turned down the job offer which further angered him. And he kept calling and demeaning and degrading my work and my social class according to him. Later he calmed down so I figured he is going to think straight. But rather he kept calling me to his place with "come alone" being mentioned over and over again.

I immediately blocked his calls finding this extremely unprofessional and verbal harassment of sorts. He then sent a confidentiality agreement with the terms that he will not pay for the extra expenses and the conveyance. Finding it extremely suspicious i refused to sign it. We had not worked out an agreement or settled at anything. He keeps calling and messaging that he will sue me. I feel extremely unsafe and uncomfortable with this situation. Please help!

Answer 1

This individual was attempting to defraud you, or at best to use intimidation to try to get you to produce skilled products for a much lower price than you would normally charge.

Without any specific verbal agreements in place to produce products at a specified price (and given the absences of a written contract and his bizarre conduct since the collapse of the relationship), the odds of him being able to successfully sue you are close to nil, noting that the value of the contract (30 x £9/1000rs) is actually pretty small.

You were right to block his calls and should have terminated the relationship as soon as it became clear that he didn't intend to pay your expenses. You were right to be wary about going to "see him alone" as it's likely that he would have tried to use the opportunity to intimidate you further or even use violence to coerce you.