ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

1 year, 9 months ago - John Lubran

The devil is in the detail. Without knowing those devilish details no one is able to answer the question with any degree of definition.

What's the legal contractural status of your employment ? Whilst many long and detailed contracts on paper may not be enforceable, for all sorts of reasons; on the other hand many unwritten contracts, even those that are not even contracts under Administrative Law, may be found to be constructive agreements under other types of law, such as Tort under Common Law and other jurisdictions. There may be more to the arrangements between you than is appreciated.

Presumptions of entitlement may not accord with any actual entitlement and vice versa. What is your agreement or the basis of understanding between you, the agency and the Producer ?

Whilst there may be a proverbial 'Fedral Case' to be explored, without a sharply learned mentality and a sense of 'actual law', or a good lawyer (sadly very hard to find one that understands that Fundamental Principles of English Law as opposed to the increasingly
failing Diceyest approach).

We're entering into a period of a renaissance like evolution in terms of Law and Constitution, not least because long held notions relying upon Case Law and Judicial Procedural Conventions as having constitutional supremacy are unravelling.

Clearly there's some devilish backstory to the issue revealed so far. How that story interfaces with enforceable reality seems to be potentially of the essence.

1 year, 9 months ago - William Webb

As noted elsewhere, hard to say specifics without knowing specifics. BUT if you have a written agreement with this person that your travel cost will be reimbursed, and there’s no mention that this may be withdrawn due to client feedback, then legally I think you have a good claim to be reimbursed. It sounds like you’re also not getting paid - again, if that’s because of feedback, and that mechanism wasn’t laid out in your contract, then you have a good claim to be paid as well.

Your client might suggest that your poor performance (as defined by his client, which you don’t have details on) is indication that you’ve broken contract (as in, you have failed to deliver the videos in a way they specified). Proving that is on him, and if you have a brief and can prove you worked to it, I think you have a claim.

My suggestion would be to threaten court (small claims) and see if that in itself is enough to get moving on payment. TBH, it sounds sketchy, both not sharing the feedback and reneging on contract, and I suspect court would not be favourable to either.

1 year, 8 months ago - damien frawley

you should always be reimbursed for any costs you have incurred especially if thats been agreed no matter what

1 year, 8 months ago - Jamie Kennerley

Provided you have emails that show an agreement between yourselves (or at the very least an offer from them that they will reimburse travel) then it may be worth going the small claims route in court. They almost certainly wouldn't want a county court judgement against them and as soon as they hear from the court that you are claiming then I imagine they would settle your expenses straight away so it doesn't go any further.

Needless to say you won't work for them every again, and if they're particularly spiteful they might try and spread the word that you're not to be trusted as a shooter.

So, it's a judgement you have to make. Swallow this one and move on? If you actually like folks at the agency maybe there's even a way to save your relationship with them based on the actual quality of the work you did. Maybe the agency guy was just having a hard time from their client and can come round to your point of view after a week or so.

Unfortunately this kind of happens and you always have to make a call on how you want to proceed. I can tell you from experience that some fights are worth it and some fights are not.