What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? South Dakota
13 months ago my husband and I got married and hired a new photographer (a friend of a friend) to take our wedding photos. We paid him a $200 deposit. He did a good job taking the pictures and a month later we recieved our proofs and custom thank you cards. At that time we paid the man half of our bill which was $500 and scheduled a date to order additional prints. We were told that we would pay our remaining $500 balance (depending on the amount of pictures we would order) when we recieved the photos. However we have not been able to get ahold of the photographer since, he will not answer his phone, door or return voice mails or emails. He took 5 of our proof for our thank yous and never returned them and we have not been able to order or recieve additional wedding prints that we paid $500 for. As a result we have filed a small claims lawsuit for the $500 + costs. We have several friends as well as others we have talked to that are experiencing the same problems. He refuses to accept the papers we are trying to serve him with. We tried serving him by mail as well as through the Sheriff. Both were failed attempts. We want people to know that he is operating a scam to prevent others from this experience. Is it Libel/Slander/Defamation to print flyers explaining our situation or put adds in paper etc. if the information is true and not vulgar? and should we get a lawyer or would it be a waste of our time since nobody can find a way to serve him annyway.
13 months ago my husband and I got married and hired a new photographer (a friend of a friend) to take our wedding photos. We paid him a $200 deposit. He did a good job taking the pictures and a month later we recieved our proofs and custom thank you cards. At that time we paid the man half of our bill which was $500 and scheduled a date to order additional prints. We were told that we would pay our remaining $500 balance (depending on the amount of pictures we would order) when we recieved the photos. However we have not been able to get ahold of the photographer since, he will not answer his phone, door or return voice mails or emails. He took 5 of our proof for our thank yous and never returned them and we have not been able to order or recieve additional wedding prints that we paid $500 for. As a result we have filed a small claims lawsuit for the $500 + costs. We have several friends as well as others we have talked to that are experiencing the same problems. He refuses to accept the papers we are trying to serve him with. We tried serving him by mail as well as through the Sheriff. Both were failed attempts. We want people to know that he is operating a scam to prevent others from this experience. Is it Libel/Slander/Defamation to print flyers explaining our situation or put adds in paper etc. if the information is true and not vulgar? and should we get a lawyer or would it be a waste of our time since nobody can find a way to serve him annyway.