A tough looking one for sure...

The first thought that came to mind was: does the contract between the employer and (about to be booted) contractor stipulate anything about the situation?
If, for instance, the contract says things like 'may be dismissed at any time with or without cause and will be paid for work done (i.e. billed, hours agreed) and some sum if terminated immediately' then the employer owes him $$$. Similarly, if the contract mentions anything about oversight of quality of work in progress then the same may well apply (are you the first 'oversight' to date?).

If it is to be YOU who replaces him and gets the contract, then it seems to me that there is a good chance for conflict of interest to be challengeable in court. Of course if the work done to date is paid in full then there should be much less incentive for the bootee to take that route.

All in all, I'd say you should see a lawyer. So should the employer.

good luck


>Hi everyone!
>
>I was recently hired to make an evaluation on the status of a software project to help my client determine whether he should go into damage-control mode or not.
>
>The contractor who did the design of the project is also acting as project manager and has hired several people (including himself) to develop the system.
>
>After spending two weeks looking at things from every possible angle, I have recommended that the project be aborted as it is. I based my opinion on what I consider to be an inapropriate hardware platform, choice of a legacy language that's not appropriate for a NEW application, project manager's lack of management, and the fact that the only part of the application (20% of it) that has been developed lacks a number of very basic features, has a very large number of bugs, and has taken an inordinate amount of time to complete.
>
>A few days ago I sat in a meeting with the consultant and my client and after the consultant asked for another opportunity to sit down with everybody (including the client) to try to get the project back on track, my client agreed, but stated that since I'm more qualified than himself, the decision to continue or not would be mine.
>
>There is a huge amount of money at stake here, some has been already paid to the contractors, and half has been billed but not paid.
>
>Now, if I say that the project is to be abandoned entirely, my client will probably not want to pay the balance that he owes. The best possible outcome under this scenario is that everyone walks licking their wounds. The worst case would be lawsuits.
>
>What do you people think would be my exposure in this case?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Alex