A complicated situation with a disgruntled freelancer. Help REALLY needed!

I have an extremely complex situation keeping me awake tonight and would greatly appreciate some advice. Please bear with me on the details, as I don't want to leave out anything important.

I own a freelance business. I hire freelancers to work for me, and we in turn are under contract to various clients.

Recently I tried out a new freelancer. I offered her a trial assignment to see if she liked the work, and informed her that she would be paid for it no matter what. (All of this contact was done via email). I said that if she liked the work, she could sign a contract with me and become a true freelancer. I told her that paychecks were available through either paper check or Paypal depending on her preference. She then informed me that she does not live in the US and asked if that would be a problem. I said No, provided she was willing to accept Paypal and US dollars, both of which she said were fine.

She did the trial assignment, but did not agree with my contract. The contract states that the freelancers will be paid, but does not explain when or how, as this changes depending on the assignment. We could not agree and I informed her that I would not be able to change my contract as she desired. She sent me an email stating that this meant she would not work for me, and that she expected to receive payment for the trial assignment via a paper check mailed to her address in another country.

I told her that I was sorry it did not work out and wished her luck, and stated that I would mail her the check. I should not have said this, perhaps, but at the time I was thinking that perhaps she hadn't set up a Paypal account or had some other reason for wanting the paper check. I wanted to show her that I would honor her wishes on this.

Her response to my email was very unprofessional and vicious; she got very personal and insulted my intelligence, my business, etc., stating that I did not know what I was doing with the contract, etc. This was out of the blue; I confess I was probably misreading tone all along, but I had no idea she was taking this personally or was upset.

Once I received that email, I realized that her request for a paper check was likely done just to inconvenience me. I can't prove this, but she had earlier said that Paypal was fine. I also became nervous at this point about sending her one of my payroll checks with all of my bank info on it, as she was clearly upset at me. At this point I contacted a lawyer in my area and spoke to him. He agreed that I should not send her a bank check, and said that her earlier statement that Paypal was acceptable constituted an agreement, so I should go ahead and pay her via Paypal. Which I did.

I'm still very upset and unsure what is going to happen next. Am expecting nasty emails from her and think she may reject the Paypal payment. And I DID tell her that I would mail her a check; however, that was before things took this ugly turn, and I don't know that my statement was necessarily binding; certainly not as binding as her earlier statement that Paypal was acceptable? Particularly when the trial assignment that I sent her was only sent after she agreed to take Paypal payments? If she had said at that point that she would only take paper checks, I would not have given her the trial work, as the postage would add up really quickly.

Basically, if anyone can outline to me if I have a leg to stand on in terms of paying her via Paypal, or if she could get me into trouble here, I would vastly appreciate it. Thank you!

[Law200]

It is not likely she will take any further action. If she has a Paypal account then that should be fine. Her damages if any would be very limited if she tried to pursue it further.

Does she even HAVE damages? I mean, I paid her the full amount. It's currently sitting there and she is refusing to claim it and continues to email me demanding a paper check.

[able1]

I woud agree--she has to take it from paypal unless there is a reason she cannot.