******* Legal Advice Needed ASAP ******** (1 Viewer)

[keepoursaints]

Seriously, I'd try this....if you make it to TV, let us know (and don't forget to give me some credit). Good Luck! I'll be rooting for you.

http://www.judgejudy.com/#/submityourcase

http://peoplescourt.warnerbros.com/contact.html

http://www.judgedavidyoung.com/cases_and_tickets/make_your_case/?id=1&sub=form

p.s. Don't spoil it for us by telling us if you win or lose.

my cousin suggested the same thing.... i can't imagine stooping to that low

Thanks Jonesy.. we're going to do some digging tomorrow just to see what options we have.

 

[Big_L]

I would think that if you have done the work and it is date stamped then he should have to pay,why else would you do the work if not to get paid. I hate when folks do dumb stuff like that. I would think an oral agreement is just as binding as a written contract.

 

[keepoursaints]

That's what I'm thinking. It's not like we met one time.. I did a ton of work and then I'm asking him to pay me for something that I did without his knowledge. We met on an off for nearly a year... me going to his residence atleast 4 times and each time us discussing the site and reviewing it, making changes, etc and me explaining what we want done to our house, etc. It's fairly obvious that he knew I was holding good on my end of the oral agreement.

 

[saintfan-n-alex]

3 options,

take what he offers and alter your business practices to avoid this situation again

file an action against him and see what the courts say - though the cost of your time and any legal assistance may cost you more - depends on if youre fighting for principle of the thing

keep your work, give him nothing, call it a lesson learned.

i wouldnt let him touch my house though

 

[keepoursaints]

I do still have his domain login info I could always redirect his site to some homosexual porn site or something.. hehe

 

[varanook]

keep your work, give him nothing, call it a lesson learned.

I would do this. It REALLY sucks but it's the route I would take were I in your shoes.

He paid you for nothing so he gets nothing.

 

[keepoursaints]

3 options,

take what he offers and alter your business practices to avoid this situation again

file an action against him and see what the courts say - though the cost of your time and any legal assistance may cost you more - depends on if youre fighting for principle of the thing

keep your work, give him nothing, call it a lesson learned.

i wouldnt let him touch my house though

Oh he definitely isn't coming near my house that's for certain.

No matter the outcome I won't do any work, with anyone without a contract.. lesson learned for sure.

I'm going to explore my options for sure.

Also, found out that his business is in bad standings (or atleast isn't in good standings) with the Sec of state of LA for not filing his paperwork or something... my wife knows more as she looked it up.

Would this factor into the equation at all?

I would do this. It REALLY sucks but it's the route I would take were I in your shoes.

He paid you for nothing so he gets nothing.

Edit: Oh he's definitely not getting anything from me, but I'm just leary of throwing roughly 50hrs of work down the drain without atleast checking into my options.

All of your opinions are GREATLY appreciated guys... keep em coming and I will definitely let you guys know what we decide and how it all works out.

 

[Jonesy77]

I know sabotaging his page would be easy and seems alluring. I'd probably avoid that route, though. If you're even thinking about stepping foot in a courtroom, you want to be squeeky clean

 

[Peet]

Get a lawyer to send him a certified letter saying he has 30 days to pay or legal action will be taken. It's simple and it often works.

 

[saintfan-n-alex]

Would this factor into the equation at all?


.

probably means you are one of many people who feel this guy owes money to - if you can add your name to the list and notify the better business bureau you may stop him from doing it to someone else

 

[keepoursaints]

Get a lawyer to send him a certified letter saying he has 30 days to pay or legal action will be taken. It's simple and it often works.

My brother suggested the same thing this morning. Just to put some pressure on him.

I know sabotaging his page would be easy and seems alluring. I'd probably avoid that route, though. If you're even thinking about stepping foot in a courtroom, you want to be squeeky clean

Oh I was 130% joking on that one.

 

[primadox]

So what exactly happened with his part of the verbal agreement (working on your house)? Did he back out of that or do you simply not trust him now? If it's the latter, be careful...if you're trying to make him accountable to a verbal agreement, he can do the same, and say that you've changed the terms of the original agreement. That's just my no-legal-knowledge opinion...

 

[keepoursaints]

So what exactly happened with his part of the verbal agreement (working on your house)? Did he back out of that or do you simply not trust him now? If it's the latter, be careful...if you're trying to make him accountable to a verbal agreement, he can do the same, and say that you've changed the terms of the original agreement. That's just my no-legal-knowledge opinion...

No basically he decided to not use my website after it was completely done and told me to send him an invoice of my work so he would pay me and we would be done. He never took 1 step into doing the work on his end and it wasn't my choice to back out of the contract at all. I provided him with the requested invoice and he said he wasn't paying the amount that was quoted based on the very well documented work I did.

 

[hammernnails]

Guys I have a question regarding small claims court.

As I'm sure 99% of you know, I own my own business designing websites. My issue involves a client refusing to pay for a website that I have been working on since January of 2007. I am not going to post the business name, obviously so I'm going to be as specific as I can.

Basically we made a verbal agreement (I will NEVER do that again) that I would design a website for him in exchange for him doing some work at my house. My policy in website design that I relay to all of my clients is that the "design" of the site is the most imporantant aspect of the site and I won't move forward adding information until I get the greenlight from them to do so. I design my sites to where each page looks the same (ie. the buttons are in the same place, etc. just like SR.com) so really there is no need to move forward adding textual information until my client is satisfied with the look of the site. I explained this to this client as I normally do. I have absolutely no problem tweaking a design over and over until the client is 100% satisfied and that was the case with this guy. I sent him a design I came up with on my own because he said he didn't have a particular look he was hoping to go for so he gave me artisitic license to come up with something. I made a design, sent him an email and unfortunately although I have his reply, it doesn't show what he is replying to so I don't know if this will hold up as evidence or not.

Once I got his approval, I duplicated the look into 11 pages, specific to the ones he told me to make and I spent the time copying over images, cleaning them up and adding all the information he had provided for me to add to the pages. I didn't hear from him for a while and when I did contact him he said he wanted to change the look. I honestly believe it was his wife who wanted a different look, but that's a whole different story. I didn't object, but instead proceeded on a new design based on suggestions from his wife and himself.. I even had a picture to use as a model because he had a friend of his come up with a design. I created the design and again was told that they liked the look of the site so I began creating more pages.

Basically I created a 15 page site and every page contains information, except for his frequently asked questions page.. but I wasn't given information from him so I couldn't just make up something to put on there.. he knew that.

My website CLEARLY lists my prices based on the number of pages created for a site... a 15 page site costs $1500.... with hosting it runs just under $2000.

He said he would only pay me $700.

I asked him why and he said that's all he felt he owed me because he talked to some other website people and they said a 6 page website wouldn't cost more than that. That's the point.. a 6 page website is priced at $450 on my site...but he has a 15 page site that I pulled up on my laptop in front of him today. Not to mention 11 pages of a site I wouldn't have created if he hadn't given me the thumbs up so we're talking closer to $3000 with all the work I put into it.

He even offered me $2000 during the process to cover what I had done, but I told him not to worry about it because I took him at his word that he would handle his end of the bargain. He never did ANYTHING on his part.. he did drive out to my house one time. I met with him at his house atleast 4 times to go over the site.

I have a folder containing 1641 files of images, html pages, etc that I made on his site because it was tweaked over and over and over on his request. I have time stamps on all of the files that show when they were modified, etc. I have all of his pages up on my server and can prove that at the time of the "dispute" there were 15 functional pages up.

Basically I can't accept $700 for the amount of work I did and he is refusing to pay a dime more so I would like to take him to small claims court to recoup my money.

I am seeking advice as to whether or not you think I have a "leg to stand on" so to speak and I am "LEGALLY IGNORANT" when it comes to law stuff. I have piles of evidence all documented... he has nothing to go by other than saying he doesn't feel the site is worth more than $700. A portfolio of all my sites is listed on my website so he had over a year to browse through my site to see my work.
Thanks for ANY advice you guys can give me and I'm so sorry this is so long-winded, but I wanted to make sure I gave you as much information as possible.

Please feel free to comment and ask any questions and I'll answer what I can.

because small claims court wont cost you much its worth the effort (bring all youe evidence and represent yourself because a lawyer will take all your "winnings" so do not get a lawyer for this type of case).... and most often the letter threating a lawsuit will get him/her to settle with you.... but I know from experience that you MUST ALWAYS SIGN A CONTRACT... I lost over $5000 on a final payment from a job because he said "i let his dog out of the gate in the back yard..."I had no contract saying how much he owed me because it was all word of mouth and a handshake... a verbal contract is worth NOTHING!!

 

[SuperQuincy]

Umm no offense, but Small claims court is a WASTE of time and more money for me.

I loaned someone money, I had a contract signed and notorized. the person never paid me back, so I took him to small claims court. I had to pay 150 bucks for the hearing and and another 50 to someone to deliver the summons to him. SO I was out another 200 that they tack on to the amount owed if it turns out he is on the hook for owing me money. SO he owed me 700, that went up to 900 with the 150 for the hearing and the guy delivering the summons to him (I forget what the persons title is)

So we go to small claims court I have all my documents, I have the bank withdrawals from my account in the amounts he borrowed, I have the signed contract and I am golden. They order him to pay me the 900 at the rate of 60 dollars a week. I wasn;t pleased about the small increments but whatever I was gonna get my money right. Um no they guy just never paid me, and because it not a criminal case they was nothing the courts could do. Now the guy moved and lives 3 states away and I am not only out the money I lent but also the money for filing the claim and having the guy bring him the summons and they courts do absolutly NOTHING for you as far as making him pay goes.

All I can do is pay another 150 for another hearing and 50 more dollars to a guy to bring him the summons be out another 200 and he just won;t pay that because they do not enforce anything in Small claims. So now I am legally owed 900 and they do nothing to enforce it.

I know it stinks to be out all of your time, but like the others said better off taking the 700 and giving him 700 dollars worth of work, rather than go through all the hassle of small claims where you will have to spend even more money to get whats owed to you, and they basicly don't enforce it. he will just leagally owe you money and can still just not pay and all you can do is spend more money, to get more words out of the legal system, with little to no action.