Hi Travis

Certainly it's a hard learned lesson. The trick is never to be desperate for work, and try to feel out potential clients better. In the end it is almost unavoidable. Awareness will help limit some of the pain ans losses associated with a troublesome client.

I wrote a neat article on our site about what's called the 80/20 rule for clients.
see; The 80/20 Rule

As far as policy, you can use ours in part or in whole if you want (for web developers );
CDS Policy
Cheers

Dave