Hi there. It sounds like you are in a difficult position. Your legal rights will depend on the terms of the agreement or contract you reached with the web developer. Written contracts for IT or web development services generally contain clauses about what the service provider promises to deliver to the customer and who will be liable in the event that something goes wrong. Some contracts also contain a ‘disputes’ clause which explains how disagreements between the parties are to be resolved.

If you signed a written agreement for the web development work, then you should review the terms of the agreement to see what clauses it contains. If it contains an indemnity or similar clause under which the service provider disclaims all liability for any damage or loss caused to your site by their work, then you may not have a legal claim against them.

If you did not sign a written contract, this does not automatically mean you do not have any legal rights. It just means that it may be more difficult to establish the terms of the agreement and therefore more difficult to prove that the web developer has not held up his end of the bargain.

If you can prove that the web developer has caused loss or damage to your website as a result of his work, and his liability for this loss or damage is not disclaimed in the terms of the agreement, then you may have a legal right to compensation (called ‘damages’). This compensation may cover the immediate cost to fix the problem plus any other financial loss your business has suffered as a result of the web developer’s work.

However, on a practical level, these claims can be difficult to prove, especially if there is no written agreement or the value of the loss is hard to quantify. You should consider negotiating with the web developer to reach an agreed outcome that satisfies both parties. Your first solution sounds sensible, assuming that the developer did in fact cause the problem. The second solution is less sound because deducting the correction fee from the original invoice would mean you are paying the developer less than what was originally agreed. This may be seen as a breach of contract on your part, which would give the web developer a legal claim against you.