Oral Partnership Agreement

I run a events/marketing company out of Va. I partnered up with someone in another town to branch out and make more money. We used my material(marketing,logos plus his company logo). The plan was they would run the events I would help set them up and market them and we wold split the money 50/50. He up and decided he would run off with the money that he owed me and continue on with my events. Is there a way to prove that we went into a partnership? I sent a partnership proposal to him but it was never signed. If I file a cival suit would it be worth it? If I did is there a way to recover deleted emails from gmail & myspace for evidence? How bout recovering text from sprint? We are looking at well over $500 one of the events covered in the partnership that was never signed he is still operating and making money off.

The oral agreements are binding...file in small claims and at least the other person has to testify under oath.

Text is retrievable but not web based deleted emails easily...but it too is possible--if it is worth the time and cost.