How to sue an editor

ihatedv

ihatedv

Well-known member
To make a long story short. I switched editors and he was suppose to send my tapes to new editor Monday. Today is Friday, NOTHING.

Monday I want my attorney to send him a letter. On what grounds can I threaten a lawsuit?
 
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have you considered going over and picking everything up yourself? if you start a lawsuit, it will be a very long time before you see those tapes.
 
Now, if you didn't pay for his services yet that he rendered and you had a contract to do so, well, then it's another story entirely and the police won't be doing anything to recover your stolen property that he's holding as collatoral...
 
You can have your attorney send a sternly worded letter if you must and hope for that to be the end of it. Usually that scares people enough to get cooperation. I've dealt with that and congressional letters with good results.
 
Never understood why people let their footage get out of their hands. I just don't get it. In 2009 can footage not be saved to a harddrive before being handed off to some knuckle dragger? Just a thought.

-Nate
 
ihatedv said:
To make a long story short. I switched editors and he was suppose to send my tapes to new editor Monday. Today is Friday, NOTHING.

Monday I want my attorney to send him a letter. On what grounds can I threaten a lawsuit?
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Was there mention of anything in the contract. What happens if you switch editors? Technically, you could have defaulted on your own contract if you terminated with the editor you had. He can turn it right around on you.
 
ChipG said:
Need to know more.

Why did you switch editors?

Are your bills paid?

Collateral?
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This information is neccesarily to give good advice on how to proceed and the basic essentials of what it likely all boils down to. They seperate it from a possible criminal matter which *could* be quickly addressed to a civil matter which could be drawn out forever if either party is stubborn.

Either way, moral of the story is, never turn over your originals. If you shot film, then only turn over the telecine tapes until it's finalized and you're ready to cut the negative, if you shot any form of digital, you should already have a copy of everything, if you don't, well, you will from now on.
 
Casalen said:
You can have your attorney send a sternly worded letter if you must and hope for that to be the end of it. Usually that scares people enough to get cooperation. I've dealt with that and congressional letters with good results.
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That is exactly what I was thinking..
 
Nathyn said:
Never understood why people let their footage get out of their hands. I just don't get it. In 2009 can footage not be saved to a harddrive before being handed off to some knuckle dragger? Just a thought.

-Nate
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I agree. (but) I don't have the equip to capture, yet; So my alternate is getting it copied for $40. and wait 24 hours. Dam that sucks, because the sooner my footage is cut, the sooner I'll be making money!
 
ChipG said:
Need to know more.

Why did you switch editors?

Are your bills paid?

Collateral?
Click to expand...

I switched because after 3 weeks of him telling me (I'm not finished). It turns out he did not even start. He offered to refund my money (he did). And send my tapes to the new editor. All the tapes made it except my latest project.
 
Mattykins said:
Was there mention of anything in the contract. What happens if you switch editors? Technically, you could have defaulted on your own contract if you terminated with the editor you had. He can turn it right around on you.
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No contract.
 
Well, I guess it's a couple of lessons learned. Always get a copy made before handing off to the editor and make sure you have a contract in place before you do anything.

From the sounds of it though, he's not a totally bad guy. He refunded your money, sent some (but not all) of the tapes. What reason would he have to keep the tapes of the latest project, but not the others?

If he were going to scam you, I don't think he would have sent you ANYTHING or refunded any money.

You have to take that into consideration...

Kegan
 
...but he doesn't owe him anything? According to the original poster, the editor OFFERED him a refund and then gave it to him. Someone that would do that doesn't sound like he's doing it for the money.
 
ihatedv said:
I switched because after 3 weeks of him telling me (I'm not finished). It turns out he did not even start. He offered to refund my money (he did). And send my tapes to the new editor. All the tapes made it except my latest project.
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Ok, a lazy dishonest guy, you can work with that. Have a box sent to him with a prepaid shipping label to where the tapes should go and put a $100 bill in it for his time (for shipping). All he will have to do is put the tapes in it, make sure you arrange for UPS to come buy and pick it up from him and let him know the time and date.

Much cheaper than getting attorneys involved and I'd bet it will work.

It sucks that it came down to that but if you piss him off wth attorneys he might throw your tapes away and say he lost them.
 
The editor finally sent me an email last night. He told me the tapes are enroute. I really don't think is trying to scam me. I believe he is selfish, lazy and inconsiderate to my business.
 
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