Legal advice

[Albartkarter]

Hi, everyone! I had a studio opened up for 5 years. My husband up and left without telling me he was leaving so in a year's time I had to close my studio and get a "regular" job - normal hours/pay - to support myself and 2 year old. I never had a single issue when I was in business. I was an LLC and did portraits/weddings. When I closed the business, I began encountering numerous problems with people that wanted to order more pictures or had put off and put off ordering b/c of financial situations they couldn't afford them. I fulfilled all wedding contracts. Because I was closing, I stopped booking any weddings. I had one client that I had done senior pictures, prom pictures, beach pictures for several times that was getting married. It was a tiny, little ceremony. Because I was closing, I told her that she could hire me to do the pictures for $500 (my normal wedding packages started at $1700 and went up to $5000) only because she was a special client and I would give her a small album of 4x6 prints. She didn't want the 4x6 prints but wanted a c.d. so she could have a storybook album designed. ONLY because I wanted to do her wedding, I agreed. I looked at this as a work for hire situation where the pictures were not mine. ..they belonged to her. I took the pictures and gave them to her on a disc. We had no wedding contract for this because I was under the impression there was no product. Essentially, she was paying me a session fee and I gave her the disc. No problems whatsoever. Until last October...a little over a year since her wedding and a year since my studio closed. She calls and tells me that her mother lost the wedding disc and she needs another one. Since I delete files off of my hard drive after a year, I did not have them on my computer. I tell her that I will have to go through discs and see if I can locate them and I'd be more than happy to burn her another disc. I loaded the discs with her names on them and have her beach, senior, and prom pictures but no wedding pictures... She calls several weeks later and I tell her that I no longer have them, that I'm sorry...I'd keep looking just to make sure they weren't out of place, etc.. During this time I get pregnant with a very high risk situation and I'm sick as a dog. She calls and my husband informs her that I am no longer looking for them because of my health situation and gets her email, that we'll email her if we find anything. She's calling at all hours of the night and day at this point. She stops calling me as much and when she does, I don't answer. She then finds out who my mother is and starts harrassing her about them. My mother has nada clue anything about my business and gets extremely upset over being harrassed by this girl. She's completely off her rocker at this point threatening to take me to court if she has to, that she WILL get her pictures from me no matter what, that I don't know who I'm messing with ?!?! Crazy. My mother finally gets her to stop calling by telling her that I'm pregnant and sick, she can just wait and talk to me after the baby gets here when I can actually get out of bed. As soon as this past June arrives (my due date was June 23rd), she starts calling again....11 at night, 5 in the morning, all day during the day...back to back to back. I've told her again that I'm sorry, but I gave her the disc, I'm under no further obligation, I'm very sorry that her mother lost it but there's nothing I can do. So, yesterday, August 30th, I am delivered papers by a deputy sheriff for complaint of trover. The girl is stating that i have her property and won't give it to her. On top of the disc, she's now claiming that I owe her an album of 800 4x6 prints at a value of $500. Completely absurd. I called the court and asked them just how exactly was I supposed to PROVE that I didn't have her "property". She tells me receipts, etc...??? I have a text message from her mother in law wanting to buy another disc from me because the girl's mother lost hers. But we have no wedding contract or anything? She's saying that she has proof by an email I sent saying that I could do her wedding for $500 and give her an album of 4x6s but this is where I was proposing what I would do for her. That email also states that I'm sorry she misunderstood information I gave her about her wedding, because she went away that day thinking she was getting a storybook album and me taking her pictures for $500. This was me saying that I'm sorry she misunderstood me but it was not a storybook, but essentially a "proof" book of about 50-75 images.

My question is...well, I don't really know what my question is...

Is there anything I can provide as "proof"? Or is there being no wedding contract sufficient? Or is there being no wedding contract going to bite me in the @$$?

I have called several close friends and family members that I did their weddings for $500 and they got a disc that are writing letters on my behalf saying that they hired me to take the photos, they paid $500, and I released images on disc.

Also, when I did her wedding, my business was an LLC. Will this protect me from having to repay the money out of my pocket? But the business has been closed almost 2 years now?

And third, is there "law" about keeping photos that you have released rights to?

Thank you for your help! I really appreciate any feedback, suggestions I can get. And, trust me, I did know better than to do anything without a contract ...stupid mistake on my part so please do not beat me up for that.

[Redraidernurse]

I have no advice, just sympathy for you having to deal with bridezilla.

[disneysteve]

I think you need to post this to a legal advice forum rather than a saving advice forum. You need legal assistance.

[tulog]

Here are my comments:

1. Lets be clear. You do have a contract. A contract for $500 of services does not require a formal written agreement. Your contract is a service contract because you are producing photographs. You have done a lot of these contracts, and I am sure you and the client clearly discussed what was included for $500 (1 disc), and what was not (storage and retention of photos).

2. Trover requires that you wrongfully took personal property from her.

The proper response in your Answer should be: "Plaintiff is seeking to recover information on a disc that she herself lost after defendant properly delivered it to her. Since plaintiff admitted that she lost the disc (Exhibit A), and because that disc was the only disc ordered and produced for plaintiff according to the terms of the contract (Exhibit B), it is an impossibility that defendant could provide plaintiff with additional discs or photos. Defendant performed the contract fully when she delivered the disc to plaintiff.

Plaintiff agreed by the terms of the contract that defendant would not be storing or otherwise retaining photographs for plaintiff past the time of delivery of the disc. This has also been the general business practice of defendant (Exhibit C)."

If you want, file a counterclaim. (Since you have to pay the filing fee for the Answer anyway, you can file a counterclaim without paying any additional fees.) You could, for example, bill her for additional work she has been demanding (your research time), that she did not pay for in the original $500 contract. If you have an hourly rate, claim as damages the number of hours you had to spend researching her demands, plus any other costs you incurred on her behalf past the usual amount of work you would do for $500.

In any case, observe the required filing date for the Answer.

3. Exhibit A is the email from the plaintiff where she admitted losing the only disc.

4. Exhibit B is a notation of the essential terms of the contract. It describes what the client got for $500. Includes 1 disc produced, and does not include storage or retention of photos.

5. Exhibit C is letter xyz from another client who got <$500 worth of work> for $500, as you described. This shows the general business practice is to provide 1 disc and not to retain files.

6. If your client is contacting you at inappropriate hours, and in other inappropriate ways, my advice is to get a restraining order through a family court. This will prevent her from contacting you outside of the civil lawsuit. It will prevent her from obtaining a new firearm through the normal channels, and will make her owning one a felony.

If she is also contacting other members of your family, those persons can also be included as 'do not contact' persons on the restraining order. This request can be made because client used these persons as channels to contact you in an inappropriate manner.

The focus of the restaining order filing would only need to address the inappropriate or harassing contact (not the contractual details - thats what the civil court is for).

7. Don't say sorry to her anymore, and try to stay objective. When you are dealing with a crazy person, it is easy for the crazy to get to you.

[Seeker]

I'm sorry, but there are copyright laws.

1st and foremost: the photographer owns the picture content. Always.

Even if he or she sold proofs of specific photos, the photographer has not sold you "content" ; the photographer is in business of selling a copy of his/her "work" or "art."

2nd: without permission, no one is supposed to reproduce another's work without consent and payment.

3rd: the photographer is not obligated to provide these photo's indefinitely.

Of course, as time goes on, the photographer will want to delete his/her files.

hdd's die. cd's get scratched. Photo's themselves decay over time.

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OP... some of the dates in this posting make no sense. Yesterday was NOT August. At any rate, proceed along the lines of what tulog recommends, but know that you cannot prove anything without a written contract (but he is right, you do not need one).

The fact that MIL lost the cd, means that you have every right to charge $'s for another cd.

If you had the photos, you could make money.

The fact that you don't have the photos, means that you cannot make money.

So they can not get what they want, and the $500 is not collectable because you gave them a product back then.

[asmom]

I don't know anything about the legalese but I would have called the police and reported her for harassment especially when she started calling my mom. NO-NO. If the pictures were that important to her, they shouldn't have lost them.