Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Massachusetts
Website Competition
Last year I held a competition on my website and before it ended I E-maild a contestant saying there would be a delay in the releasing of the prizes for a few months or longer because of some business. Now this same person keeps sending E-mails asking me when he will prizes. He believes the business is for the website, but it's for him. We need time to obtain the prize money, modeling contract, licensing, etc. He feels he should have received the prizes right away, but there was nothing on the website saying the winner would get the prizes right away. We do have a website policy saying we reserve the right to allow up to two years for delivering competition prizes. I thought this rule was added to the competition, but I couldn't find it. The winner says he agreed with me for an appropriate short time to award him the prizes, but there was no agreement. the winner says the best way to resolve this is to send him a certified letter saying he will get the prizes in May 2007. Plus he is talking about taking legal action against me if not resolved. What advice do you have ? Also I received an anonymous E-mail saying that the winners wife is impersonating and not who she claims to be.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Website Competition
This is something that should have been run thru counsel BEFORE the contest was started... now, you have a potential liability that could damage the going concern and sale value of your website. Contact me if you would liek us to represent your business and you, as an officer of the business. We may be able to resolve this matter expeditiously and avoid being sued.