art licensing dispute

Hello,

I licensed an image to a distributor around 8 months ago and never recieved any reports of sales. In my contract it says they are to send me a report each month whether there are any sales or not.

Recently I found the image for sale at a poster store.

I emailed the distributor about it and they said that there were no sales. So I wrote back again with the specific poster store where it was for sale and they made an excuse about being too busy to answer my question, I asked a third time and they again said they were too busy to speak with me. It has been five days since I first tried to get an answer.

I have never sold that image or licensed that image to anyone else, it's not even viewable on my personal site. So I am 99.9% certain that this distributor is the one that is selling the image, and not giving me my royalties.

What are my options if I handle this on my own?

And what can a lawyer do for me if I decide to see one?

Thanks so Much!

Based on what you say here, you could file suit against them (or at least threaten to do so) in small claims court or in regular court; filing in small claims court is easier and requires no attorney...you could try to collect all of the costs and damages that you suffered due to their behavior...