Web designer sues BC business owner for unpaid work and wins big

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A dispute over unpaid website design work wound up at a BC Civil Resolution Tribunal as the designer sued the business owner who hired her.

Jane Friedmann sued Adam Fishman, who had hired Friedmann to design a new website for his business, Head Restraint Measuring Device (HRMD).

Friedmann claims Fishman did not pay as agreed, claiming $2,625. Fishman claimed that Friedmann did not do the work she was hired to do. In retaliation, he claims that Fishman revoked access to another one of his websites. He countersued for $5,000 in lost revenue.

Friednamnn denied Fishman’s claims.

Here’s what the tribunal found.

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Both sides came to an agreement in July 2022 to do some work for the HRMD website. However, the parties disagree about the work that was agreed upon. Friedmann says that Fishman hired her to create a new website, but Fishman said Friedmann was only hired to modify an existing website.

There was no written agreement to make the tribunal’s decision easier.

Texts show that both sides discussed whether it was better to build a new website or just modify the existing one.

After some back and forth about logistics, Friedmann emailed that the website was done and requested payment on August 2, 2022.

Fishman responded that he “could not yet afford to pay her” and that he would in a week or so. On August 17, Fishman again suggested he had some cash flow problems but would pay the bill as soon as his customers paid him.

The tribunal found that these communications didn’t support Fishman’s claims that Friedmann didn’t do the work he required her to do.

Fishman couldn’t provide any evidence to support his claims about payment, and the BC tribunal concluded that Friedmann was entitled to a payment of $2,625 for the unpaid work.

Thanks to tribunal fees and interest, Friedmann ended up walking away with $2,916.19.