It seems like a jerky thing to say. However, by the looks of things, OP had a couple of years to save up for a rainy day.
I'm willing to grant that apple is horrible, evil, son of the devil, voted for Palin, whatever. but really, is this any worse than a car accident or a heart attack?
"is this any worse than a car accident or a heart attack?"
In some ways yes. We generally have car and medical insurance to help with the financial side of catastrophic events. There is no 'software dev' insurance to help mitigate things if someone doesn't pay you or reneges on their contract. You have to bear all the costs of legal and administrative costs in chasing down the other party.
Perhaps some dev insurance program would be able to bear up to $x legal cost in exchange for y% of your burden.
I'm willing to grant that apple is horrible, evil, son of the devil, voted for Palin, whatever. but really, is this any worse than a car accident or a heart attack?