Photographers & Videographers · Unpaid Invoices
The shoot is delivered. The invoice isn't paid.
A New York attorney's guide for photographers and videographers chasing payment.
Photography has a nonpayment problem with a specific shape: the client already has the files, the "usage" conversation gets fuzzy, and the invoice ages while the images run in their campaign. New York's Freelance Isn't Free Act was built for exactly this, and photographers hold one piece of leverage most freelancers don't.
Provided through DemandLetterNY.com, a service of Hochman Law PC.
Your invoice is protected by statute, not just your contract.
NY GEN. BUS. LAW ART. 44-A · FREELANCE ISN'T FREE ACT
If you shot as an independent contractor and are owed $800 or more (alone or across 120 days of work for that client), the statewide Freelance Isn't Free Act applies: payment was due by the contract date or within 30 days of delivery, and nonpayment exposes the client to double the unpaid amount plus your attorney's fees. Day-rate shoots, retainer clients, weddings, editorial, commercial: the Act does not care about the genre.
Your extra leverage: they are using work they haven't paid for.
Unless your contract says otherwise, a client's right to use your images typically depends on the license you granted, and licenses are routinely conditioned on payment. A client running unpaid images in ads or on their site may have a copyright problem layered on top of a debt problem. An attorney demand letter that raises both tends to get read carefully. (Copyright registration questions are separate; the point here is negotiation leverage, and it is real.)
Photographer-specific evidence to lock down this week.
- The booking thread: emails, DMs, or texts setting the date, rate, deliverables, and usage.
- Delivery proof: gallery links, download logs, file-transfer receipts, the "these look great!" message.
- Screenshots of the client using the work: their website, socials, ads: with dates.
- Your invoice and every follow-up. If there was no written contract, that is the client's violation under the Act, not yours: see no written contract, now what?
"We'll pay when the client pays us."
Agencies and production companies love this line. Unless you agreed in writing to pay-when-paid terms, their cash flow is not your problem: your contract is with the party that hired you, and the Act's clock runs from your delivery, not their client's wire transfer.
The sequence that gets invoices paid.
Work it in order, from the freelancer playbook: assemble the paper trail, send one clean written demand yourself, then escalate to an attorney demand letter that itemizes the Act's double-damages exposure. If that is ignored, the administrative complaint route and small claims court both remain open. Deadlines are covered in how long you have to act.
A flat-fee demand letter drafted and signed by a New York attorney often resolves it without a lawsuit. Start online at DemandLetterNY.com, a service of Hochman Law PC, or learn more about flat-fee demand letters.
Questions people ask us.
The client keeps using my photos but won't pay. Can I make them stop?
If their license was conditioned on payment, continued use may be unauthorized. Raising that in an attorney demand letter, alongside the Freelance Act claim, is often what finally produces payment.
Does the Act cover second shooters and assistants?
If you worked as an independent contractor and are owed $800 or more, yes: the Act covers freelance services broadly, including crew hired by a lead photographer or production company.
My deposit covered the shoot but not the balance. Does that weaken my claim?
No. Partial payment confirms the engagement existed. The unpaid balance is the claim, and double damages are calculated on what remains unpaid.
The 'client' is out of state but the shoot was in New York. Am I covered?
Work performed in New York generally has the nexus the statewide Act contemplates, and ordinary contract claims exist regardless. An attorney can confirm coverage quickly.
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