What is the name of your state? Virginia
My daughter is a model locally and gets her jobs through a talent agency. The way it works is a client calls the agent and the agent sends the talent, the client hires the talent and then pays the talent though the agent who then takes their commission and writes a check to the talent for the rest. But this particular agent won't pay! She currently owes my daughter $4000.
The agent says she can't pay because she doesn't have the money anymore. She says she used it to keep her business alive and my daughter will have to wait to be paid until said agent can drum up some more business.
The client has paid for my daughter's work. The agent simply stole it -6months ago. I spoke with the agent today on my daughter's behalf (she's over 18) and the agent said she didn't have to pay if she needed the money to run her business. And she does- so she says- and she says if anyone tries to get the money from her she's going to close her doors and no one will ever get a dime.
There's many things wrong with this picture. But what should we do? I was thinking of filing a Warrant in Debt for it, but I don't want her to take bankruptcy and we never see the money even when we do win the judgement-which we will because this is my daughter's money from which the agent only gets a commission and is never entitled to the whole thing. She gets 20% commission. She is supposed to run her agency from her commissions she gets from what her talent earns. But she says the talent only gets paid if her agency makes a profit after opertating expenses. This is crap of course.
In talking around we found at least 12 other people who have never been paid ...some in over 2 years, one in 8 years. Rumor among a lot of them is that the agent takes the money and invests it in stocks and won't pay until she sees a return on the money.
I know this is a mess, but please start to comment somewhere.
My daughter is a model locally and gets her jobs through a talent agency. The way it works is a client calls the agent and the agent sends the talent, the client hires the talent and then pays the talent though the agent who then takes their commission and writes a check to the talent for the rest. But this particular agent won't pay! She currently owes my daughter $4000.
The agent says she can't pay because she doesn't have the money anymore. She says she used it to keep her business alive and my daughter will have to wait to be paid until said agent can drum up some more business.
The client has paid for my daughter's work. The agent simply stole it -6months ago. I spoke with the agent today on my daughter's behalf (she's over 18) and the agent said she didn't have to pay if she needed the money to run her business. And she does- so she says- and she says if anyone tries to get the money from her she's going to close her doors and no one will ever get a dime.
There's many things wrong with this picture. But what should we do? I was thinking of filing a Warrant in Debt for it, but I don't want her to take bankruptcy and we never see the money even when we do win the judgement-which we will because this is my daughter's money from which the agent only gets a commission and is never entitled to the whole thing. She gets 20% commission. She is supposed to run her agency from her commissions she gets from what her talent earns. But she says the talent only gets paid if her agency makes a profit after opertating expenses. This is crap of course.
In talking around we found at least 12 other people who have never been paid ...some in over 2 years, one in 8 years. Rumor among a lot of them is that the agent takes the money and invests it in stocks and won't pay until she sees a return on the money.
I know this is a mess, but please start to comment somewhere.
