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Boutique recruiter wins long-running dispute over unpaid fee

An agency MD who has won a placement fee dispute after an 18-month legal battle says the case sends a strong message that when recruiters have followed all the right processes, "justice is on our side".

The MD, who runs a Brisbane-based IT recruitment boutique, first became aware that the client had hired their candidate via a LinkedIn update. But when they sent an invoice, the client refused to pay on the basis the candidate was known to it before the recruiter's introduction two weeks earlier.

Up until that point there had been no suggestion of a dispute arising, the MD says. The parties had exchanged emails about the candidate; terms had been sent; and a client credit check had been performed – indeed, the company had used the agency before and paid its invoice...