No contract, no agreement, can a web designer claim the website he created & keep it

[louie2099]

No contract, no agreement, can a web designer claim the website he created & keep it

Hi, here'a a situation:

a graphic/web designer lives in country(A), now he was asked to do a task by a foreign national staying in country (B). No Contracts, no agreements, no disclosure. He kept doing designs for the foreign national remotely. foreigner emails the task, designer gets the job done and emails the foreigner a copy of the final product. this went on for a year.

2 websites were created, done, working, operational. foreigner gave the designer access to the hosting site, not limiting him to anything at all.

designer gets paid regularly, sent by a money courier via designer's wife's name.

a few months earlier, foreigner's business slows down, and started decreasing designers pay. sometimes the designer doesn't get paid at all. but designer keeps working when asked to do a task, even if most of the times the designer would repeatedly beg for his pay. Just this month, designer felt he needs to move on. and had asked the foreigner that they go their separate ways.

Foreigner refused to give the final pay unless he gets all the copies of the work the designer did for him, which technically the designer already did, designer always had given him copies.

With the feeling that the designer wont get paid at all, designer took down the websites he created, and kept the copy to himself until he gets his pay.

Foreigner now threatens the designer that he will file a lawsuit against the designer while the foreigner is in his own country.

I guess my question is, without any contract, agreements or disclosure, can the foreigner file a lawsuit against somebody and that person is in another country?

 

[quincy]

Hi, here'a a situation:

a graphic/web designer lives in country(A), now he was asked to do a task by a foreign national staying in country (B). No Contracts, no agreements, no disclosure. He kept doing designs for the foreign national remotely. foreigner emails the task, designer gets the job done and emails the foreigner a copy of the final product. this went on for a year.

2 websites were created, done, working, operational. foreigner gave the designer access to the hosting site, not limiting him to anything at all.

designer gets paid regularly, sent by a money courier via designer's wife's name.

a few months earlier, foreigner's business slows down, and started decreasing designers pay. sometimes the designer doesn't get paid at all. but designer keeps working when asked to do a task, even if most of the times the designer would repeatedly beg for his pay. Just this month, designer felt he needs to move on. and had asked the foreigner that they go their separate ways.

Foreigner refused to give the final pay unless he gets all the copies of the work the designer did for him, which technically the designer already did, designer always had given him copies.

With the feeling that the designer wont get paid at all, designer took down the websites he created, and kept the copy to himself until he gets his pay.

Foreigner now threatens the designer that he will file a lawsuit against the designer while the foreigner is in his own country.

I guess my question is, without any contract, agreements or disclosure, can the foreigner file a lawsuit against somebody and that person is in another country?

And which country are you from, louie? A, B, or USA?

 

[louie2099]

designer = country(A)
client = country(B)

 

[Sloop John D]

Whether or not Client may bring a suit in Country B against Designer depends largely on the jurisdictional rules of Country B.

 

[quincy]

You did not quite understand my question, louie. This site handles U.S. law questions only. Do you reside in the U.S? And exactly what countries are involved (not A or B, but the actual countries) - or is this a hypothetical question?

Laws vary in significant ways from country to country.

Generally speaking, however, the client would need to sue the designer in the designer's home country under the designer's home country's laws. The client cannot compel the designer to come to his country to be sued. And, without a written signed agreement, both the client and the designer are probably out of luck anyway - the website creator will probably have a difficult time getting paid and the client will probably have a difficult time getting the websites restored.

Moral of the story: Get everything in writing and work with someone in your own country so that if problems arise there are legal options that can be realistically explored.

 

[louie2099]

I'm so sorry quincy, i'm not from the U.S., but thank you for your answer.

 

[quincy]

You're welcome, louie.