Photography Work Legal Problem

[ddr]

maybe you should edit out part two of your decision... since it sounds like a different version of the truth

[lowside67]

Originally Posted by MajinHurricane

So I've decided to do 2 things.

1) I'm sick of him harrassing me especially 3 years after the fact. I've decided to write him an email that the next time he contacts me it better be in regards to small claims court. Any further contact without a court date will result in a restraining order and that violating the restraining order is a CRIMINAL offense.

2) Since there was no contract, I'll invoice him for the photo's on his website/day rate and claim that the 1k was a deposit and I stopped working when I no longer recieved payments. And that if no payment is recieved I will be opening a claim.

Douchish yes, but I want this problem to go away.

Ps. I was young at the time, so I didn't know what I was doing. Luckily I have much better business sense now.

You can live with yourself at night lying in court? You truly are the epic douche that everybody makes you out to be.

[J____]

Originally Posted by MajinHurricane

So I've decided to do 2 things.

1) I'm sick of him harrassing me especially 3 years after the fact. I've decided to write him an email that the next time he contacts me it better be in regards to small claims court. Any further contact without a court date will result in a restraining order and that violating the restraining order is a CRIMINAL offense.

2) Since there was no contract, I'll invoice him for the photo's on his website/day rate and claim that the 1k was a deposit and I stopped working when I no longer recieved payments. And that if no payment is recieved I will be opening a claim.

Douchish yes, but I want this problem to go away.

Ps. I was young at the time, so I didn't know what I was doing. Luckily I have much better business sense now.

again... is this all worth $500? i thought u were loaded, even have a new TL.

[77civic1200]

Originally Posted by MajinHurricane

I was to do ~every 2 to 3 weeks, and I was paid a small amount of 1000 dollars.

While I didn't show up every 2 to 3 weeks

That right there about sums it up. You didn't live up to your end of the agreement. You can't change your mind half way through and just expect it to go away by not answering the phone.

[Senna4ever]

Originally Posted by MajinHurricane

So I've decided to do 2 things.

1) I'm sick of him harrassing me especially 3 years after the fact. I've decided to write him an email that the next time he contacts me it better be in regards to small claims court. Any further contact without a court date will result in a restraining order and that violating the restraining order is a CRIMINAL offense.

2) Since there was no contract, I'll invoice him for the photo's on his website/day rate and claim that the 1k was a deposit and I stopped working when I no longer recieved payments. And that if no payment is recieved I will be opening a claim.

Douchish yes, but I want this problem to go away.

Ps. I was young at the time, so I didn't know what I was doing. Luckily I have much better business sense now.

Dude.........

[Meowjin]

part 2 was a joke. but do yo u see where im getting at? Next time WE BOTH KNOW to sign a contract.

[OriginalJC]

You made this thread, so obviously you're open to criticism.

Sack up, pay the man, move on with your life. You made a deal, took the 'small' amount of money, and didn't live up to your end of the deal. Karma is a bitch...

[Meowjin]

ok, but why should i pay him back half? What If I feel like i did 100% of the work but he thinks I didn't? I already told him that if he doesn't think he wasn't properly compensated he can take me to small claims.

I'm still going to offer him 250. But 500? That's saying I did half the work.

[Mananetwork]

I agree with what J said.

Btw, batch resizing/tagging/uploading isn't work - the computer does all that

[baldy]

maybe we could have a photo meet which involves the two of you in a not-so-celebrity-death-match!

[Amaru]

Originally Posted by MajinHurricane

yes, But I don't think I'm in the wrong jason. Can you imagine selling your photos for 1 dollar each? Infact if you want to do it an hourly scale

I showed up 7 times for ~3 hours each. During that 3 hours I fill up a 4 gig photo card with ~300 photos.

Then I go home have to mass resize them and mass upload them and tag the team in the proper photos.

So lets say for those 7 times its about 5 hours of work.

7 x 5 = 35.

I'm getting paid 28 dollars an hour to photograph. The day rate for most event photographers is a 1000 dollars minimum a day. I'm trying to explain to him that it's a good deal. And why did he wait 3 years to settle with this?

Personally Just to defuse it I'll offer him 250. If he refuses, then I'll file a restraining order and suggests he meets me at small claims.

Earlier in the thread, you said that you remembered signing a contract. Is there any possibility that he still has this contract?

If the contract stated that you were expected to show up at the hockey rink at least twice a month (or something similar) - and you didn't - then you are in the wrong, and a judge would almost certainly award him $500 or more.

The point is, at least in my assessment, that even though you may have produced 1000 good pictures, you failed to live up to the contract expectations which required you to regularly attend.

To illustrate with a metaphor, imagine that I'm a carpenter and I sign a contract agreeing to build someone a two-story, 2000 sq/ft house. If I build a 5000 sq/ft single-level mansion instead, I haven't fulfilled my contractual obligations, and thus I wouldn't be paid. Building the mansion would require more work than the 2000 sq/ft house, but the contract specified I was to build a two-story house, so I can't demand a paycheque simply because I put in more work.

Anyway, I don't even know what the truth is anymore, because in a later post you claim there was no contract. If he doesn't possess a paper contract, then you'll definitely win a court battle, because a verbal agreement won't be sufficient given the amount of time that has passed since the agreement was made.

[Meowjin]

I'm basing the "no contract" on the fact that he said there was no contract.

I do remember signing a contract. He probably lost it.

[ecchiecchi]

lol - I'd thread carefully if I were you. If he was a royal ass, he could say he doesn't have the contract, take you to small claims court, let you lie, then show you the contract that you signed that he said he didn't have.

[Slo40]

I love how you post all the details of how you plan on further ripping this guy off on a public forum that he can easily access, print off, and hand over to the judge - case closed...

Instead, since you say you are strapped for cash right now and you think he wants you to take more photos for free, just do it and you won't be out of pocket anywhere near $500. Contract or not, you admittedly didn't live up to your end of the deal, where he obviously did since he paid you in full 3 years ago.

[Meowjin]

I just found out he has no case after 24 months of the dispute, according to my lawyer.

/thread.