So I need some advice on whether or not I should seek legal action or not. Here is my story.

I worked as an independent contractor for this company Supersports Photo for several months (May-Sept). I never officially signed any paper or tax form making me an employer obviously everything was just under the table. I would show up to local events with all my own gear and get even coverage photos for him and in return i'd get $15 an hour. I would get paid randomly in a lump some via paypal gift (he lives in la) and that would be that until the next event in the area. A few months ago I worked three events for him and gave him about 4000-5000 photos in total. Now up to this date I still have not been paid, only about $300 he owes me but still. All the photos I took on are on his site which he is illegally selling and making a large profit off of. He is ignoring all of my calls, text messages, and emails and is not responding to anything. I assume I no longer work for him lol but he wont pay me what he owes me either. To make matters worse I brought a buddy on bored to his team who worked several events as well and he owes me another 200-300 but has not paid him either and wont return any of his calls or anything either.

Of course this is a very small amount of money to seek in small claims court but I do not want to be ripped off by this guy. What I am more pissed about is the fact he is making hundreds of dollars off of the photos I took which he does not "legally" own the copy rights to or anything since he never paid me. He is a "legitimate business" and i assume has a business license since he shoots a lot of events statewide for many of the largest marathon companies around...so i was thinking sue him for the money he owes me, my buddy, and for more since he is illegally using my pictures.

Now my question is, if I wont he case wouldnt he have to cover my court and or legal fees? Its basically a slam dunk case right? two young college students vs a 40+ year old business man who is illegally selling photos for profit.

I'm I missing anything? I obviously have no previous court experience so I am asking for the experienced people or at least more educated people for some help here. What should we/I do?

Thank you for reading the novel! lol

 

working under the table in itself is going to be hard. id say to start off, gather any and all paperwork relating to this guy (travel receipts, emails, letters, texts, photos, paypal statements, etc.) i myself will be going into a court case in small claims court ($1500.00 in damages our roomie put in our walls then split) when the cops came over the night of his sissy fit, he admitted to causing the damage and is written on the police report from that night. documentation is everything. especially when you are not "legally" employed per Labor BOard standards. GLWFight

 

I think the "under the table" part is whats mainly against you. Although since it was "under the table" he has no ownership over your photos and would be participating in copyright infringement.

 

Since you signed no paperwork with him, the photos belong to you legally. Sue him for usage rights. Forget what he owes you for the work, the rights are worth more.

 

You're hosed.

Bottom line. You're working on the table. Never give someone the artwork until they pay. I had to learn that lesson the hard way as well. I was helping a buddy out by doing some work super cheap for a magazine he co-owned. The other owner was a douche. Dude never paid on time.

It got so bad I withheld the art work until he paid me. He still owes me like $400 to this day but it just wasn't worth it to push. On top of that he submitted me to the IRS and I got tagged for not paying taxes on the "under the table" wages.

So you better hope he doesn't do that.


Basically you could go to small claims and probably win. But that's going to cost you money and time. And you're going to have to admit to not paying taxes.

What you may be able to do is copy protect all your photos. You have proof they came from your camera. You're the source.

There is no paperwork that you gave him the photos just like there is no paperwork that he has to pay you. So if he uses them you could sue him based on copyright infringement. At least I think you can.



This happened with a local graff crew in salinas. They kicked one dude out. That dude trademarked the name of the crew and started a clothing line based on it. The crew tried to sue him and the lawyers basically said... you have to admit breaking the law in order to get money out of him. So he ended up counter suing them saying that them using his company name as vandalism was bad for his image. So the threat was there that if they messed with him he'd screw them hard.

So it's all about how far you're willing to go.

 

The short version of what I just said. LOL!

 

tru tru. if you are technically not his employee, he has now ownership whatsoever for the photos. but since you are not his employee, its just as if he went onto your website and straight up jacked them. safe to say had u signed a W-4, you can go to the labor board with no problem. if u didnt sign paperwork, its a normal theft/copyright infringement case (may have a little tougher time than had u singed a W4) with a W4, you have the law on your side and your employer cant do **** for his benefit if you have worked the hours and he refuses to pay u

 

Make sure you pay your taxes on any income you make as an independent contractor. It can come back to bite you YEARS later. Always get a contract! Getting paid by a paypal gift sounds super shady and should have raised red flags in the first place.

If you can provide any proof you where supposed to receive payment for your work than take him to court. Send him a cease and desist order pronto to take the photos off his site. Lots of attorneys give free consultations to see if you have a case.

 

Independent contractors are responsible for paying and filing their own taxes. There is no such thing as an under-the-table independent contractor, just someone who neglected to pay Uncle Sam. On the other hand, given the numbers stated, you might not have made enough money that you have to file/pay anything.

Even without signing an employment contract, you could say you had a verbal agreement to do work evidenced by the previous arrangements where you were paid.

If the dude is really making a substantial amount of money from your photographs then I think you should have a solid case. Try to find out roughly how much money is involved and then ask around on a legal help forum. If there is enough money riding on it you might be able to get a lawyer to handle everything (maybe the simple threat of a lawsuit will make this guy settle and pay you) and take a cut of the settlement for payment.

 

YES. as an accountant, i can tell you this: the IRS will NOT let you sleep until they get their money thats "rightfully" theirs (untaxed dollars) LMAO. tellin u man, the IRS grabs u by the *****.

All in all as OMA stated, learning experience. you gotta fall to get up and move on, right? i really hope everything works out. there have been a lot of Under the table work that have become court cases or whatnot.

 

Same exact deal for me. I used to shoot for an online children's flag football club and shot a total of 3 events. I provided my first round of shots, did not get paid, and held my photos until then. Never got paid, though was asked for the photos. When it became clear that I was not going to get paid, and this operation was shady as hell, I walked off the site, and just did not show up for further events. There is nothing you can do without any paperwork. Just walk away, and do your best to learn from it.

 

A little something like this can save your but, only this is from the company I was working for but same idea. Write one up and have them sign it.



Yes I was a pirate YARRRRRR

 

Everyone is telling me basically what I already knew and should of done some to prevent this from happening to me. However now I know for next time.

Basically what I want to do is sue him for copyright infringement for using these photos without permission for his personal profitable gain. However, he is probably not making much money from the photos now since the events were several months ago and people usually go onto his site and buy the photos the following week after the event. I assume he made several hundred dollars from each event, totally up to three events.

Ray, you said I might win the court case for copyright infringement but lawyer fees would cost me. Why is this? If I won the case couldn't I make him cover my lawyer fees?

 

Yeah I got hosed. IRS got me a couple years later and I was like... wtf? Then did the mental math and went... that SOB! But what could I do. They tried to garnish my wages but I just made payments until it was all gone.

These days... 1099's are your friend. Last year I had a savings account to pay for my 1099's. This year I won't make enough for it to matter on 1099.

 

Problem is what OneManArmy already said - you play your card, he will play his. You will have to pay taxes and penalties on the money you earned, BUT he will have to pay you those wages. The rights to the photos are worth more, and would be separate from the earnings issue IMO, so he still stands to lose more than you do.