Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
I have heard and seen it go both ways. A majority of time, the contracts are legally binding and are held up in a court but I have also seen providers who haven't gotten everything to go their way. For example, one provider had a client who owed her $150.00 and had a late fee of $10 per day. The provider charged this parent the late fee until the court date and the judge did not allow the entire amount to be awarded to the provider because in her words "the late fee far outweighed the original balance owed."
I have also seen providers win in court against families on subsidy and the judge either ruled in the parents favor (because they were low income and had no means of paying off the balance) or ruled in the provider's favor but the provider never saw a dime because the judgement placed against the parent on subsidy could never be collected due to the parent again being low income.
I think that in most cases, contracts are legally binding but I have seen some odd circumstances that the parent won.
One of my friends who is a provider lost in court against a parent because the parent could proove that the provider allowed her to be late before with payment and just because the provider decided to start enforcing the contract after the fact, she herself voided it by allowing her (the parent) an exception to the rule. Which is another good reason to NEVER waiver from your policies or rules.
I do have in my policy, that should I decide to waive/forgive a DC policy for any certain reason, that it does not void or cancel out the contract between both parties.