Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Illinois

My issue is that I paid someone $500 back in late April to build a website for me. Two months later my website was muddled with a sandwich recipe. The person who built the website claimed to have cleaned and replaced all the files. Two weeks after this incident the website was muddled again with information from a template the person used and with the sandwich recipe again. I investigated that issue and concluded that the person who built the site knew something was wrong with the template or made a technical error and instead of being honest with me he claimed that Russian hackers got into my website. He also said the problem came from the photos.

Then when I presented this issue he was upset because I said he was at fault. I said there may be an issue with the template used. He said he did not think so. He said he found corrupt files. I asked him for the files but he never told me where to find them on my cPanel. I contacted template monster.com and told them about the template. The Copyright officer sent me an email stating the error was in the template and they will fix the error.

I want the person who built my website to completely rebuild it or give me back my money. If he does not, do I have a case against him? I have everything documented in email with our conversations and screen shots of the muddle website.


Asked on 7/27/10, 11:18 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bruce Burdick Burdick Law Firm

Sounds like a case to me. The amount is too small for any attorney to mess with it. I wonder if the person who built the website is local to your area or in some far off place. If the later, the amount is so small you are SOL. If local, you should consider a small claims action in small claims court. Consult your local county circuit clerk for details on how to do it. SIU Law School has a self-help site that also gives advice, complete with forms and instructions on their use, for small claims court. Google them and you will find it easily.

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Answered on 7/27/10, 3:06 pm


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