Can someone sue me for wasting their time?

[raizguana]

I am an independent worker (New York) and I was contacted by this client to take some photographs of his products. I helped him for 4 days -working in my house- but he was very hard to work with, he wanted too many revisions and for the money he was going to pay me, (he never paid me anything) I was going to lose a lot of my time. This project also prevented me from working for other clients.I made up an excuse and told him that I could no longer work for him, he wants to sue me so I can reimburse him for this time lost. There was never a contract and I even told him he didn't need to reimburse me for the 4 days I worked. Should I worry? What can I do?

 

[cbg]

The answer to any question that begins, "Can someone sue me for (fill in the blank with anything you like)" is always yes. Anyone with a filing fee can sue anyone for anything. I can sue you because I don't like your shirt. Doesn't mean I'll win.

In this case, I wouldn't worry about it until or unless you're actually served with something. Without a contract, he's got little or nothing.

 

[raizguana]

The answer to any question that begins, "Can someone sue me for (fill in the blank with anything you like)" is always yes. Anyone with a filing fee can sue anyone for anything. I can sue you because I don't like your shirt. Doesn't mean I'll win.

In this case, I wouldn't worry about it until or unless you're actually served with something. Without a contract, he's got little or nothing.

Thank you for the quick reply.
I am a little worried though, because I told him that I was going to work on the project trough e-mail. Couldn't he present that as some sort of agreement?
But as I said earlier, there was no contract or invoice, we didn't even agreed upon a certain amount I just gave him an approximate time because I didn't know how long it would take me.

 

[cbg]

While all contracts are agreements, not all agreements are contracts. EVEN IF he was able to present an email and claim it requires that you complete the project, that doesn't mean a judge will agree it was a contract.

 

[BL]

Can someone sue me for wasting their time?

No.

A person would have to prove their damages.

Given the circumstances and the difficulty you had with them , I doubt they would prevail.

However ,if they do sue , you should countersue for your time and labor you put into this matter.

Both suits would most likely be dismissed , or called a wash ( so to speak ).

 

[raizguana]

No.

A person would have to prove their damages.

Given the circumstances and the difficulty you had with them , I doubt they would prevail.

However ,if they do sue , you should countersue for your time and labor you put into this matter.

Both suits would most likely be dismissed , or called a wash ( so to speak ).

Thanks for your reply.

I was thinking that this whole thing is going to consume a lot of my time too, if needed, how do I counter-sue someone on the small claims court? Do I fill some paper-work after or before the trial?

 

[BL]

Thanks for your reply.

I was thinking that this whole thing is going to consume a lot of my time too, if needed, how do I counter-sue someone on the small claims court? Do I fill some paper-work after or before the trial?

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/Ithaca/CITY/webpageGuidetoSmallClaims.html#anchor93527

See counterclaim.