Legal Question in Employment Law in Virginia
Before I resigned from my former position as an independent landscape designer for a company, I fulfilled what was requested of me as far as copies of drawings and contracts of sold work. Now that I've moved on, my former employer has a whole laundry list asking for all original drawings, all files from sold and unsold work, and a disc with all computer files of all documents create while working for him for 3.5 years. He paid me a part-time base salary, no benefits but a cell phone, and 15% commissions for all sold work. He never signed a job description with me. I feel I do not owe him the original drawings. I feel also that he is punishing me for leaving him by asking me for everything which will take a tremendous amount of time to pull together. Currently, I am working full-time and taking care of my significant other who has cancer. For the last 3.5 years, I've paid an accountant to deduct everything we could think of as an independent contractor such as part of my rent and utilities, gas mileage, etc. All of his paychecks to me had the taxes taken out of them. What intellectual property am I legally entitled to keep and what is he legally entitled to ask of me?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Tell him that as an independent contractor all of your original works belong to you and
that his rights extend only to the copies which he has paid for and already received-------and nothing more.