verbal contract

[lesley]

i answered an ad for an amateur photogapher who stated that in return for my posing for him, i would receive a package of prints of the photos taken. he has still not sent me the photos (five weeks after the photos were taken) and i have contacted him both by phone and email to ask for them. he has stated that he will not send me the prints, as per our verbal agreement, but has agreed to send some of the negatives. he has broken his portion of our agreement, hasn't he? what can i do about it legally? i don't believe that he will actually send those negatives either. i would, ideally, like to end up with all of the negatives, but how can i force him to give them to me?
i live in nova scotia, canada

 

[JETX]

Naturally, not being in the U.S. means that any information you receive from this forum is not applicable to your case (assuming that the entire venue is in Canada).

Since you didn't have a written agreement for negatives or prints, any argument that you make to support your position could be simply challenged with "Prove it" and you will not be able to without some substantiation.

However, the photographer may also have a problem. Did you sign a "Model Release"?? If not, he may not be able to do anything commercial with the pictures since you haven't released them. If you did sign a release, see if there is any mention of prints or negative ownership.