Corporations, Partnerships, Business

biggboie · 09-11-2007, 06:29 PM

Jurisdiction/Place:

I want to be sure to get the best answer possible so this will be detailed. I am a publisher of a new magazine. The publication will come out in November. I was being really private with my information, because I worked from home. I would use freelance writers to help out. Well the agreement I used stated that each article they write I would pay $50. Well two of the writers didn’t like the price or terms of the agreement. Also because I didn’t have a website up they said I was a false company, and that it was a scam, that I was just trying to take there articles and resell them. Well they have gone so far to post information like this calling my company a scam, saying bad things and say I am stealing work. Keep in mind I have not paid anyone and am not required to pay until the magazine publishes. Now the information has cause advertisers I had lined up to pull out, celebrities I had featured to pullout, and other writers to default on their contracts because of this false information. Also keep I mind that my website was under development and the company information would have been released when the magazine launched to protect against PR issues, I have even agreed to have my magazine distributed through a major national distributor. My magazine is also registered with the Library of Congress and has an ISSN, on top of that my corporate site will be live soon, and final my company is a newly registered Texas C-Corporation. So what can I do? This information is on search engines and linked to my company name when people search for it, which has caused advertisers to pullout. They have always been able to contact me via email, voicemail, or private address. And the only reason why I work from home is to save capital I will need later when I expand operations.

So because of this I have lost $25,000 in contracts, set back on production and printing which will cost me $50,000 and not having celebrity guess on features has cost me wasted time and money about $20,000 worth so all and all this false, information has cost me almost $100,000 can I sue for defamation? Libel or Slander and sue for damage to my business because of unfounded false claims? Please help any advice would help. This has hurt me I am a nice person just trying to make a dream come true and have never hurt anyone.

daughterinlaw · 10-11-2007, 08:24 PM

When you are slandered where you have lost money, time etc., yes, you can file a lawsuit. With the proof you have of a legit buisness, give it a shot...pay the filing fee..send the paperwork that you filed to all of your lost advertisers and celebrities to show them that you are for real. You aren't going to lose more then the filing fee at this point, which can't be more then 25.00 bucks.

seniorjudge · 10-12-2007, 11:39 AM

If you want to file for defamation, set aside $30K (if it's cheap) and three years (if it's fast).

StephanieTodd · 10-14-2007, 08:23 PM

Bloggers began posting about your company's ads because they were very poorly written and worded, your contract was even worse and they started to "warn" others that it may be a scam. They never said IT WAS a scam, just that due to what they have seen, it looks like it is a scam. Your ads said you were publishing 30+ magazines at one time, which is unheard of and given that, your job postings were unprofessional and your contract did not have any contact information for your company; it was a fair warning/concern. Had you been a legitimate company, these things wouldn't have affected your business practices. But, one too many things didn't add up to those who had signed contracts to work for you.

Things didn't get REALLY bad for you, until you continually refused to provide additional information for your company, used a fraudulent name to represent yourself and refused to pay people who were promised payment and under contract with you.

Seeing as though, you currently owe contractors a combined total of over $150,000; the bloggers suspicions proved true.

And, also since things have been proven like; you do not have a distribution deal, you are not backed by investor funding, you do not have an office location (which you said you did), you haven't paid ONE contractor who has done work for you and there are not 45 publishing reps working for you as you've stated; you're pretty much up shits creek; the same position you've put all of your contractors under; except 100 times worse.

You didn't even register your company as an incorporation until almost 2 months or more after you entered into these contracts.

If you're going to asks for legal advice; I would think you'd be wise enough to divulge the WHOLE TRUTH; so you won't waste anyone's time trying to help you; as you've done numerous times already.

Why don't you asks these good lawyers what they think of you already owing a ton of money to contractors and continuing to hire new people, only to not have the money to pay them either??