Wedding Photographer Did Not Deliver Pictures and is Avoiding the Clients

My question involves court procedures for the state of: Hennepin County, Minnesota. I hired a photographer, paid him in full as he requested and he came to the wedding on time, was courteous and took what looked like a lot of photos of my daughters wedding. She was married in September 2014. To date, January 2015, he has not produced the disk that we paid for of the photos, nor answered emails asking about the status of the disk or phone calls. I am fearing that the worst has happened to the photos at this point and wonder if I should be considering arbitration asking him to produce the disk? At this point I am thinking that he has destroyed the photos and will never produce what I faithfully paid for. I do not even care if they are horrible photos at this point, I just want to see them.

You can ask the photographer to participate in mediation, but the photographer may decline to do so. Also, if the photographs do not exist it will be impossible for the photographer to produce them.

OP, you mention that the photographer has not answered emails or calls. Does he have a physical business location that you can go to? Another line you can take is that of social media/reputation. If this happened to me, I would have absolutely NO PROBLEM making sure that ALL who wanted to read about my experience with this service provider knew exactly what my experience was. If this guy is running his own business, he'd be very wise to resolve this so that you, his customer, are satisfied.

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Quoting kommej

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My question involves court procedures for the state of: Hennepin County, Minnesota. I hired a photographer, paid him in full as he requested and he came to the wedding on time, was courteous and took what looked like a lot of photos of my daughters wedding. She was married in September 2014. To date, January 2015, he has not produced the disk that we paid for of the photos, nor answered emails asking about the status of the disk or phone calls. I am fearing that the worst has happened to the photos at this point and wonder if I should be considering arbitration asking him to produce the disk? At this point I am thinking that he has destroyed the photos and will never produce what I faithfully paid for. I do not even care if they are horrible photos at this point, I just want to see them.

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This is breach of contract. I suggest you sue him in small claims court for the money you paid him.

If you aren't willing to do that then I suggest you keep your virtual mouth shut and not post rants on the internet lest you end up getting sued for defamation. That the statements may be true gives you a defense to a lawsuit but doesn't prevent the lawsuit.

PS: I imagine a lot of your wedding guests took photos, maybe video. Round up copies from them.

You should be delicate with the situation because you want the photos and in a fit of anger or frustration the photographer may destroy them (if they still exist) without thinking about the financial costs involved.

Some photographers are slow to process photos (most edit the photos to improve the quality before putting out a final product to clients) and he may be avoiding your calls or emails because he knows he is behind. That is often a problem for photographers that do this work part time where they are already busy with another full time job, family and go out and take more pictures for new clients. I know it is frustrating to be in this situation but I would not immediately assume the photos are lost. Be persistent in trying to reach the photographer. If there is a physical location or somebody else associated with the photographer that you can talk to then that alternate channel may be your best option at this point.

Eventually you may have to file suit but it is probably a little early to start going down that path.