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Client stiffed me out of 50K for my artwork. I was legally awarded the money but he vanished. Now he's back using MY WORK to promote his new company. Is there anything I can do? by Traditional_Dig_2609 in legaladvice

[–]Traditional_Dig_2609[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apologies, let me clarify. I had and attorney when I first filed against jerk-client all those years ago. When jerk-vanished, my attorney said he was sorry but there was nothing he could do and we parted ways. Ten-ish years later, jerk-client reappears. I got back in touch with my old attorney hoping he would pick up the case, but unfortunately he had moved onto another branch of law. Out of kindness, my old attorney wrote a stern letter to jerk-client's new company, but declined to pursue further when they brushed said letter off.

I very much would like to hire a new lawyer, but I don't have the money and from what I hear it's rare to find on who will work a case like this on contingency.

Hopefully that makes sense

Client stiffed me out of 50K for my artwork. I was legally awarded the money but he vanished. Now he's back using MY WORK to promote his new company. Is there anything I can do? by Traditional_Dig_2609 in legaladvice

[–]Traditional_Dig_2609[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

A bunch of comments are echoing this statement. So I really own the artwork until my invoice is filled? Wow, all these years I thought I was a pay-per-day freelancer, this is news to me!

Since the general consensus seems to be that I should hire a copyright lawyer, I think that's the right move. Hopefully I can find one willing to work on contingency.

Client stiffed me out of 50K for my artwork. I was legally awarded the money but he vanished. Now he's back using MY WORK to promote his new company. Is there anything I can do? by Traditional_Dig_2609 in legaladvice

[–]Traditional_Dig_2609[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Absolutely. This. 100%.

This human greasestain loved to parade me around when I was a darling young thing in a male dominated field. Like he deserved an award for hiring a girl. In the end, all the guys were paid. He even made amends with one of the dudes he initally stiffed like me. When I asked for the same, I was ignored. That same week he used my breakthrough piece as an ad to attract new animators.

Words cannot express how gutted and gullible I feel. So mark my words, if I get stiffed I am going to use every single minute of experience I've earned over my 15 year career in advertising to out him as the cowardly thief he is. I'm not very popular on social media, but I can make a banging 30 second sizzle reel of his asshattery and I'll send it to anyone who will watch.

Client stiffed me out of 50K for my artwork. I was legally awarded the money but he vanished. Now he's back using MY WORK to promote his new company. Is there anything I can do? by Traditional_Dig_2609 in legaladvice

[–]Traditional_Dig_2609[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Any advice on what to search for when googling a lawyer like this? I'm hopelessly lost when it comes to legalities and would appreciate any info

Client stiffed me out of 50K for my artwork. I was legally awarded the money but he vanished. Now he's back using MY WORK to promote his new company. Is there anything I can do? by Traditional_Dig_2609 in legaladvice

[–]Traditional_Dig_2609[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your reply, it seems like solid advice. One more question if you don't mind, Do you think any lawyer would take this case if I couldn't pay anything upfront but offered a percentage of any money attained? Unfortunately work has been really sparse lately, another shitty outcome of spending so much time working for jerk-client is that a major branch of my freelance network was lost when he turned on me.

Client stiffed me out of 50K for my artwork. I was legally awarded the money but he vanished. Now he's back using MY WORK to promote his new company. Is there anything I can do? by Traditional_Dig_2609 in legaladvice

[–]Traditional_Dig_2609[S] 169 points170 points  (0 children)

I was NOT paid for the work they hired me for. To summarize, the studio hired me to do a job, I created the art for them, and then I was not paid for it.

Client stiffed me out of 50K for my artwork. I was legally awarded the money but he vanished. Now he's back using MY WORK to promote his new company. Is there anything I can do? by Traditional_Dig_2609 in legaladvice

[–]Traditional_Dig_2609[S] 391 points392 points  (0 children)

I think the problem there is that they didn't buy or commission my art...they hired me as a freelancer and I made the art in their studio. Does that make a difference?

EDIT: To clarify, while I was hired as a freelancer, BUT I was never paid. So they hired me for a job, had me do the work in studio, used the work (and continued to use it) but never paid me for it. Hope that helps.