I feel I’ve said all i can to convince you of my point so I figured I would answer this as a last question even though you posed it as rhetorical.
I understand what you mean but what happened to the unexpected? My wife new thought that this will happen. It's like blaming a movie going for not wearing a bulletproof vest when going to see a movie. I can bet you that majority of people don't have a backup of their files because of various reasons. If my wife had the slightest thought that this will happen, she would have made a copy and she will not buy insurance. She bought insurance as a last minute thing suggested by the DASC.
I too think we have reached a point where we will just have to agree to disagree. I see your point, but hope you see that others, Iike me, may see it a bit differently. After all, that is why we have trials and why juries are made up of typically 6 or 12 people.
I had in mind something quite different, so I'm glad you clarified it. However, it really does vary from place to place and from one panel to another. When I last served on a jury in DC three of the jurors, including me, were lawyers, and nearly all the rest were federal & DC government workers. The rules in DC do not allow lawyers to escape jury duty (as apparently some other jurisdictions do) and the rules for service pretty much make it impossible for government workers to get out of service, too. After all, government workers get paid their full salary each day for attending jury duty, so they don't risk losing any money, unlike employees of private companies and self-employed people who may only get paid the paltry jury service fee of $30/day. The judges are bit sympathetic to the claims of those latter folks that serving would be an undue hardship for them.Talk to a local civil litigation attorney to see what you might realistically expect if you sued the shipper. Take copies of all the documents, explain what happened, and see what he/she says. I think that not making a copy could be a problem, but there is nothing that say for sure it would be a problem. On the issue of making a copy before sending it a lot depends on how you frame the argument and what the judge or jury hearing the case thinks a prudent person would do in that situation. As the discussion between me and justalayman shows, people can have differing views. A local lawyer would have a better sense how the judges/juries in your area would come out on that and can also tell you how the other issues that have been raised here, like the measure of damages and any contractual limitation of liability, are likely to go.
Maybe you should first read what others have said, read all my comments and take some time to dig through the contract before protecting a loss in this suit. Thanks
I believe it is you who ought to go back and read the items again, keeping in mind that the attorney who has posted to this thread leans more towards my way of thinking.
Your questions were already answered in the thread somewhere. Apparently the original photographer deleted the original photos so they can't be replaced that way.
That doesn't answer the first two questions.
My my. You expect a lot from the volunteers on this site. You actually expect "us" to design your case for you for free. Wow. Not only is that against the TOS of this site but would be considered an UPL. If you are not capable of filling out your small claims paperwork you need to hire an attorney to do so for you.
I asked for suggestions and ideas. I do not expect anyone to write it for me. I understand what this forum is all about and I have benefitted immensely from the free knowledge available here. If you read what I said carefully, you will understand that I am going ahead to pursue this case in the small claims court so that I can share my experience and the account here for others to learn. Feel free to make your own suggestions but am not obligated to take it at the end of the day.
I can bet you that a lot more people than you think DO in fact do regular backups. I do a full backup once per month and incremental backups in between. I know of quite a few others as I'm the one who set it up for them. I worked for Sony and a huge law firm - and every machine was appropriately backed up. And why? Because the data on the drives were considered important. If I had data on a drive that you speak of, I would no doubt have several backups kept in several areas. I'm not claiming that anything wrong was done by yourself or your wife, just a suggestion for the future. What can take minutes to complete can sure save a lot of headaches.