Career Coaches Asking For $10,500

Location: Arizona, USA Their location: Washington, USA

Last year in November, I had hired career Coaches for $1000 where I was supposed to pay them 15% of my CTC after receiving a full-time job offer. I haven't received any full-time offer and I stopped being responsive to their messages in the last 6 months. Now they want to terminate the contract and want me to pay $10,500 for the 21 1-on-1 sessions I had with them. He said since he knows me personally (we only each other through this program), he's also giving me a discount and an option to pay in monthly instalments. I read through the contract and found that $500/session is only applicable when I end the contract.

3.1 Termination: Coach reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time at self-discretion with a written communication to the Client. The Client can terminate this agreement upon permanent departure from USA (as and when their legal visa status expires, and they are no longer legally allowed to stay in the country without an employer sponsored visa or basis any other legal reasons) after sharing necessary proofs of departure communicated 15 days in advance. This agreement will auto terminate after the exchange of the coaching service and any due and applicable payment by the Client is executed completely. Any other exceptional termination request by the Client (aligned with the Coach) before appearing for any screening and/or interview calls, can be executed after a payment of $500 for every hour of coaching/service provided by the Coach. Payment to be made within 2 days of such termination.

When I emailed him regarding this clause, he messaged me on Whatsapp saying,

"Are you sure you want to go down the legal route? I can get my lawyer to send you a notice.”

“Not paying won’t be an option.”

“The discount won’t be available if we involve the lawyer.”

“We’ll show your session feedback and recordings as proof that you enjoyed our services.”

He also said he’d “wait until the evening” (which is now) for my response and that if I don’t agree to pay, they’ll hand it to their lawyer and “add legal dispute fees and payment penalties.”

I have the entire contract and can share it (with personal details removed). Can realistically sue me or even extract any further money?