designer fucked us, trying to sue him, need help
 

hi, we have a designer that we contracted a job to for 5k and later found he had just copied the site from a different site. we tried to work it out with him, but he broke our agreement by not delivering a new site in time.

so now im not really expecting to get the 5k back, but im sure as hell going to make his life hell trying. i want to take him to court, and make sure he gets a notice to appear in court, maybe a collections agency.

i dont have any experience with this, and im sure some here do, any advice will be appreciated.

ah that sucks bro, but your probably fucked. I think your pretty much doing what you can legally...

Wow that really sucks. And GFY is not good for legal advise you will get just about every answer you can imagine, but the best advice is to consult an attorney.

Small claims and if you win the judgement,you can send to a collection agency for a fee.probably not worth the effort and time though

thats why you hire someone from the board thats well known to do business with and your chances of getting fucked are way lesser!

yea, we are going to do that in the next few days, but i bet people here went through something like this before and had some advice, but the situation does suck, although i relish the chance to move from person getting fucked, to person doing the fucking

you will pry spend over 5k in legal fees

Small claims, but good luck with that

that sucks man!
who's the guy?

lawyer would be the first step

sorry to hear that jcsike,
it's designers like that who give all the other good designers and design teams a bad name
best thing to do to get rid of designers like those is post their name and url and make sure no one else ever uses them again

You must consult an attorney

I'd start by contacting a collector's agency. They can give you a legal advice too.
Its sad but it happens when you are working with a single designer, you need to be able to count the risks. Studios provide more security.

how can you have 5k to spend on design and not use a reputable designer of which there are plenty ???

please name the guy

Could not agree more.
Your options will depend on a few things,
1 your contract, if you dont have one give up.
2 where your designer is located.
3 Your ability to spend more then 5k to chase him down get legal help and attend several court dates.

Sorry guy but that is about how it is going to unfold.

dude, the thing is, he is right up the street. id like to take him to small claims court

do you know the process to get him served? thats the part im looking forward to most

That definitely sucks always pay only half up front half on delivery! That way you're not out as much cash if something happens...

As far as getting anything back from the guy? Small claims court is about all you can do if you're willing to spend the time... even then there's no guarantee the guy is going to pay though so...

maybe he was trying to get cheaper service is what i was going to post but then i thought 5k are you serious thats a lot of money for designing unless you were doing a whole site. :2 cents:

1) Expect to spend a lot more than 5k in litigation
2) Collections Agencies typically don't work to collect on a refund

Good luck.
WG

that's easy. first, you have to determine the jurisdiction. generally you have to sue in the location of the defendant, not your location. if you are located down the street from him that makes the question easy. then locate the county court that handles small claims for the jurisdiction. then file a claim with that court. Many courthouses have all the info & forms posted online so you can get everything you need with a google search & some homework.

Where did you find out about this "designer"? God I hate hearing about stuff like this considering there are plenty of legitimate designers out there with great work... some of whom I promote.

Anyway... jcsike... I work with attorney Eric Bernstein. Hit me up at jay at ynot dot com or icq 92418228 asap and we can try to get this handled thanks.

Hmm i have deja vu with this,i think there was a thread with absolutely same topic,even same amount.

Sorry to hear about that jcsike:( Like IAC said it really gives us hard working designers that strive to be honest and make a living get a bad name.

thanks for the info

The only option Jimmi Left out, is after you make sure your own shit dont stink on this, Then out his ass on every chat board you can locate.

If he's literally up the street I can think of a few things I'd go do over 5k.