Multiple Bounced checks

[truebluejw]

My friend recently worked at a clothing company as a head designer. There are a lot of issues with this company between my friend and also myself. But basically they hired her as a designer on a percentage of sales basis, and then also hired her a a production manager on a salary basis. After working for them for two months as a production manager they fired her before she had signed the contract for her percentage arrangement for obvious reason, and then they claimed that their original agreement was nulled. Now this is not my main question though right now. This company has written numerous bad checks to my friend, and to my other friend who was involved in some artwork for the company. They also did not pay my friend her last paycheck once they fired her. There is going to be a lawsuit over the lost wages but I was wondering what can be done to properly file my other friends claim on the bounced check. Also the company owes me money for webdesign work that I did for them. I had a verbal agreement and emails, and of course the artwork and I did send them and invoice. So there are basically three different situations here really. Could someone also help decide what to do seperately and together. Another quick quesion, I know that clothing designs cannot be trademarked. However, my friend did make artwork for some of the shirts and I know that can be copywrited. Do you think this would help us at this point? Also does it matter if she copywrights the originals. I guess you could maybe say that the art is a work for hire job. But they did bounce my friends check and this whole thing was part of the agreement of the percentage of money earned off the total sales of the collection. Sorry this is a lot. I could really use a couple of tips right now. Thanks

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Honestly, I think you need to collect your thoughts into a clear, coherent fashion. My impression is that they haven't paid you for different kinds of work, some of it involving intellectual property such as artwork. You should probably send this company a demand letter, certified return receipt, for the non-payment on the work you describe with it clearly delineated and payment needing to be made within a certain number of days. You may also want to say that failure to pay results in continuous copyright infringement and may result in statutory and other damages in addition to breach of contract. If they do not pay you my want to take them to court -- perhaps small claims if the amount is under $5,000 for each breach of contract. So if the amount they owe you for the artwork is less than $5k and the amount they didn't pay in salary is less than $5k, then you should sue the company twice, each one for an amount up to $5k (it is set by the small claims court in your jurisdiction) in order to collect the monies owed to you.

Next time... make sure you have a good contract before you work!

Originally posted by truebluejw
My friend recently worked at a clothing company as a head designer. There are a lot of issues with this company between my friend and also myself. But basically they hired her as a designer on a percentage of sales basis, and then also hired her a a production manager on a salary basis. After working for them for two months as a production manager they fired her before she had signed the contract for her percentage arrangement for obvious reason, and then they claimed that their original agreement was nulled. Now this is not my main question though right now. This company has written numerous bad checks to my friend, and to my other friend who was involved in some artwork for the company. They also did not pay my friend her last paycheck once they fired her. There is going to be a lawsuit over the lost wages but I was wondering what can be done to properly file my other friends claim on the bounced check. Also the company owes me money for webdesign work that I did for them. I had a verbal agreement and emails, and of course the artwork and I did send them and invoice. So there are basically three different situations here really. Could someone also help decide what to do seperately and together. Another quick quesion, I know that clothing designs cannot be trademarked. However, my friend did make artwork for some of the shirts and I know that can be copywrited. Do you think this would help us at this point? Also does it matter if she copywrights the originals. I guess you could maybe say that the art is a work for hire job. But they did bounce my friends check and this whole thing was part of the agreement of the percentage of money earned off the total sales of the collection. Sorry this is a lot. I could really use a couple of tips right now. Thanks