Take Photographer to Small Claims Court?

Hi All,

My hubby and I got married on December 30th 2005. We hired a photographer and paid him €300 deposit (through bank account) to book him, then €1000 cash on day of wedding. I don't have a receipt for the €1000 but do have a witness to the transaction.

Despite the fact that the photographer was using a digital camera, he has so far failed to send any proofs. I have called him on numerous occasions, most of the time have gotten voicemail and left messages. On a couple of occasions I have actually spoken to him and he has said that he will put the cd of pics in the post. We have yet to receive it and have never had one of our calls returned.

At this stage I am really annoyed and want to take this further. Does anyone know what is the best way to tackle this? Would it be best to take it to the small claims court or go to a solicitor? If he does not provide us with photographs, I feel that we should be entitled to compensation as we have very few good photos taken at the wedding, we left this to the photographer, however I'm not sure which way the law would look at it.

I would appreciate some advice please.

Regards,
Ginger.

Yes, I would imagine that your first port of call should be the Small Claims Court. As long as he is not bankrupt or in liquidation, you would appear to have a good chance of making a successful claim, however, the fact that there does not appear to be much of a paper trail to support your claim doesn't help your case.

The SCC should be able to direct that you get whatever you paid for the service returned, I'm not sure if they deal with claims for damages.

Firstly, I would draft a letter and formally request proofs of the photos. Was he just to do proofs? How soon was he to return them to you(2 months is an acceptable period)

List what you paid, when you paid it, and what was the agreed service for the price. If you have a written correspondence include that also. Request a reply within 7 days. Send the letter by registered post/recorded delivery as this will be evidence which you may need at a later stage. See what happens after the seven days.

I would be inclined to go the way of a Solicitor on this one. Remember a Solicitor will look at it more from the stage that you were deprived pictures on this very important day that can never be recovered and this is something it might not be possible to compensate for.

Is the guy registered, does he operate as a professional photographer.

My other half is a keen amateur photographer, and has completed a number of weddings, mostly for people we know. He always uses two different cameras (one digital and one film) and this is just in case something happens to one and he only ends up with one set of photographs. Sometimes the better shots will come fromt he Digital and sometimes from the good old reliable film camera. It could be a case that the photographer has only used one camera and has somehow lost/destroyed your shots, or they are just rubbish and he is afraid to give them to you.

very interesting in that our story has been very similar.
does your photographer happens to live in north kildare by any chance ??

Thanks guys for your replies.

I actually got an email from him today after leaving a very irate message on his voicemail. He was looking for our address (again) to send on the disk. I will give him till Friday and if nothing happens I will take action along the routes suggested.

He originally said that he would have the proofs to us a couple of weeks after the wedding, but it was 7 weeks before I finally got to speak to him (after leaving numerous voicemails, none of which he returned). He then said it would be another couple of weeks. Again I left numerous messages after another couple of weeks and after a further 6 weeks I got to speak to him and he told me he was sending the disk that evening. That was 3 weeks ago.... My hubby got to speak to him last week, he was again sending the disk "that evening" and then got this email today requesting our address again. So I'm not sure if he's just trying to buy time but it is rapidly running out.

How can you check if the photographer is registered?

Rad, the photographer was in the Mayo area, so it's unfortunate that we've both had the same experience....

The difficulty with the Small Claims Court is that even if/when you win a judgement from the SCC, enforcing that judgement can be very difficult and drawn out.

Maybe you could try the local newspaper. The story about the collapse of the wedding dress business in Cork has attracted international attention. Human interest stories are their 'bread and butter'. A quick call from a local reporter might 'motivate' your photographer.

Hi Ginger

You could see if he is registered here. If he is maybe you could contact them and see what your options are.

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Thanks guys for all your replies.

I finally received some proofs on Wednesday and have gotten to speak to the photographer involved & give him a piece of my mind. I'm a bit happier now that I know that he actually has got some photographs for us, as I was beginning to think there was some problem.

We hope to have the album in the next month or so.

Ginger