Legal Question in Business Law in Virginia

Third Party Payments

I own a small biz in VA, AND i contract for a large US financial corp. NOW they can only pay me via credit card through a third party contractor, who processes the credit card, cuts the check and charges me 3% for the service. To date, I have submitted invoices from my company to the corp, which they have submitted to the third party who then sends me a check from his company to mine. I do not mind this as they are a great client and I don�t want to lose them.

Today I was contacted by another contractor who handles their invoices, who sent me a word template with the third party contractor�s letterhead, and told me that I need to submit my invoices from the third party to the corp from now on. This seems potentially illegal as I do not work for the third party and I have no legal authority to write invoices in his name.

Second how can I legally protect myself if I have to use a process that seems to cut my company out of the loop and leaves me no legal or financial paper trail to money owed my company? my company is mentioned as a service provider, but there is no clear invoice from my company requesting money. Let�s not even mention the tax ambiguities. Thanks.


Asked on 7/23/08, 8:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Third Party Payments

So, today, out of the blue, so to speak, you were contacted by some third party (presumably not from Nigeria)who allegedly handles your favored client's invoices and requested to submit all future invoices intended for this client to this sudden third party intervenor.

I'm still waiting to learn why you haven't apparently yet contacted this favored client to clarify, and, hopefully, resolve these issues and your related concerns with respect to this third party intervenor who now appears to loom on your business horizon without providing bona fides of any sort nor any credible authority to process the invoices which you now routinely prepare and submit(apparently)to your favored client.

To paraphrase the famous pronouncement of one of our former beloved presidents, how could you possibly begin to trust, without even getting to the issue of verification, the solicitation of this third party intervenor without having full corroboration from your favored client that all

of this is on, so to speak, "the up and up".

Better check it all out first---before submitting any furher invoices.

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Answered on 7/27/08, 12:44 am


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