[Music] this is the plth Roco nisaia he says he was hired by the defendant to shoot a promotional video based on her daughter's experience with cier implants a device used to help deaf people here he told her he'd volunteer his time and when they raised the money to make a full-fledged film he direct it and share creative control with her now that they've raised the money for the film The defendant's going back on the deal and is telling him he's no longer needed huh he's suing for $2,900 $10 the amount of money he's out and
is [Music] over this is the defendant Lisa Resnik she says the planter tried to take credit for writing the script to the movie they were going to make about her daughter who got the hearing implants when she was 2 years old the guy was trying to wrestle control of everything it was like he wanted to go from helping her to taking over she never made any agreements with the frustrated filmmaker and doesn't own a penny Shez accused of yelling cut way too soon all parties please raise your right hand you SE it come to order
please living against thank you Douglas okay nioa y films represented here by uh the owners Roco nioa and Ralph ricardi correct okay you are suing Lisa Resnik for 2,9 $10 the amount that you say she owes you for shooting a promotional video um that she has not paid you go ahead talk to Fantastic uh so several months ago uh Lisa through a mutual colleag Lisa was introduced to a film that we had done already previously before meeting her she had wanted for a film festival so he said fantastic no problem we gave her the film
and then we got to talking and then she was ended up she's doing a film a short film about her daughter who's now a teenager who is deaf would that be you MH okay tell me about your the film that you want to make it's called I can hear you and it's about um the struggle of a family hearing the diagnosis that their young child is deaf and they have no experience and knowing how to overcome this kind of disability and um at this point in time our daughter who's 16 has really done very well
academically come on up Hony right there that microphone what's your name I'm Miranda Myers um she has clear plants right yes she has she has one now kids are getting two but she got one at the time when she was two and she is apprehensive to go for surgery to get a second one but she she may at one point in time so we wanted tell me I want you to explain to me how either one of you how a cier implant works because it may be one of the most fascinating fascinating developments in medical
science that I've ever heard of and I have two sets of friends whose children have coar implants so I am familiar with this struggle and I'm involved with an organization in Miami Barton G's kids here now and kids here now I don't know if you've heard of it before but they've done a lot of fundraising a lot of fundraising in this regard to help families who can't afford clear implants get those clear implants yes we have heard of the organization it's wonderful so I am familiar with this struggle and um so tell me but I
want you to tell me about it explain how it works mirand do you want to do the talk all sure there's um a little piece that goes inside like just under the skin and it's a little circle with a wire that comes off and the wire goes around the ca you want to show how it works yeah sure there's the internal part that's implanted surgically and then there's the external po part that cannot get wet okay when was it and you had it done it two put that back you had it done it too yeah
it's two yeah do you remember not you don't remember not hearing you just it was just so and at the time when you say at the time they were doing one that was the custom in the in the that was a medical knowledge but now they do two right right with two you can locate where the sound is coming from like an emergency sound like a siren or you have no you're fearful about getting the second one in yeah and I'm also like I'm doing fine with just one so why mess with perfection right we
got it covered all right now she tells you about this project correct and you have actually someone in your family I do at that time my family was going through what they went through 16 years ago cuz my niece unexpectedly lost her hearing wasn't sick nothing lost her never had or you don't know she had it when we were in the hospital they did the test and everything test and she perfect fine beautiful baby girl and then 2 years old three years old her her speech therapist said I don't think she's hearing me anymore my
brother-in-law came home he's a coach went behind her with a whistle blew nothing so that my sister got nervous so she took it to the doctor and then we've learned about this thing called cular implants my family now is brand new to this so where at Leisa was 16 years ago right so then a year went by she got the second one put in right and then that's when this had film had come up and and I I work in Film Production right I don't have very much time outside of work and I thought what
a great way to be to help my niece spread the word a little bit cuz I didn't know anything about this a year and a half ago you know so I was just I felt like was going to be the audience almost right so I so I said Lisa this is great I said I I said my partners and I we have we own our own equipment we own own our own stuff we can do these films like how we've been doing our short films for next to nothing and I could I'll donate my time
my services my equipment let's make a film about awareness and really get the word out about this now you have at that moment you have a plan and your plan was that you had made a short what would you call it we had made a promotional video that we were going to use on the the Kickstarter website what is the Kickstarter website okay that's a crowdsource funding website where you post information about your project to raise money in advance and you ask for people to pledge money and if you reach the goal that you set
our goal was $88,000 some people set a $1,500 goal some people set $100,000 goal if you reach the pledge amount that you set then you get the F funding so you have to set a goal um you had made this video you hadn't yet put it on Kickstarter right rqa wanted to make the video shorter he thought 6 minutes was too long it wouldn't hold people's attention and he thought if people's attention were held the whole time they would be more inclined to donate and he offered to for no cost at all to remake the
video so it was our concept with the kids holding the signs and we have we have we have both versions of the video here today if you'd like to see them um I want to see the finished video the one that actually made it to Kickstarter it's all [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] set deafness in children like me still occurs in significant numbers I wrote the story so that other families can find out about experiences of a family like ours who had to figure out what to do when we got the diagnosis that our daughter was
deaf we felt alone and I hope other families will realize that they're not alone in the world before my niece was death I didn't know what a COC implant was I just didn't I I I call it ignorance call it what you wanted but I didn't know about this community who lost their hearing and can get it back through these amazing devices almost nothing short of a miracle these devices are we need to make a movie about this we need to make this short film and we can't do it without your help your support through
contributions in any amount will help us make this film we need your help and your support so we can help give hope to those mothers and their children so any amount you can give any type of Health you can give will be greatly appreciate it thank you you're good on camera too oh thank you my mother says I'm very photogenic you are very photogenic your mother's right you should listen to her more often all right so you make the new clip it's great it's the one that goes on Kickstarter you set a goal um you
end up making your goal and you've got your I guess seed money for the film sure all right so now it's time to discuss to talk turkey to see if you can all come to terms correct so who drafts the first uh draft of the agreement it was a boilerplate temple template that Ralph had find I don't know if it was say where I don't know where you got it yeah it was really a boilerplate joint venture agreement okay can I see that one yes yeah you have it in your files so he sent it
to you by email this is uh like November when is it that you receive it well before we got the agreement there was a meeting in in person where Ralph said let's have an agreement and the purpose of the agreement would to protect us in case anyone gets heard on set so then he sent an agreement that has I mean you need a lawyer to go go through something like this it's got I don't know how many pages but it's full of legal ease and it's got so many rules and regulations that you really have
to be a lawyer which I'm not to understand up to 20 points and in there is 11 which I didn't even re realize until I had a lawyer look at it that that gives total control of the whole project including the script writing that I had clearly written about my own daughter Roco can't even write a complete sentence if you probably noticed in his email trying to take credit for writing I actually didn't notice that in his email but okay but go on okay full of grammatical erors and he wanted to be a co-writer on
the script okay you're describing a scenario where you kind of felt like you were being bullied I think is what you're saying that they were trying to take advantage of you um and when you see this you're like whoa whoa they're like running over me stealing my life because this isn't just some creative fiction you wrote This is Your Life right with scientific information in it I kind of think you were insulted right and intimidated because I was told Face to Face by Ralph that the agreement was to serve one purpose it was to protect
us in case someone got hurt on set did you tell her that the only reason that we were going to put something in writing was to protect somebody who got hurt no I told her that would be one of the reasons we would want an LLC because then we're not personally responsible for anything that happened but that's not what this 20 points are about the 20 points are about your agreement with her that's the kind of the operating agreement of the LLC and can can I tell you one thing your honor um The Bullying thing
is something that really I I I don't like I don't do and I have several emails here that repeatedly ask her to give me your notes make the I know and and they do they say all right don't you know it's just a first draft just tell us what you want I know let me just tell you guys something though I know okay I know if you sent that to me I'd go and i' change it but that's me cuz I've been doing this for 13 years you know cuz I've been a judge forever because
I'm a lawyer you sent it to someone to whom this is so personal and to this is her baby this is I have three teenage daughters okay so I know and this is this is like this is this is a piece of her soul it's so personal that when you send something like this did it so what happened there's a series of emails back back and forth where you couldn't be nicer you're saying you couldn't be nicer you could be nicer you couldn't be nicer I've been saying that for years yes I mean he right
that's kind of really the the flavor I got he sends you just change it do whatever you want to it but you're not equipped to change it because you're not a lawyer and you don't know what to change so you finally get a lawyer and what's a lawyer tell you she says that you're losing all creative control cretive control and it doesn't even have me as the producer anymore which Rocco had said to me you know from the very beginning so now clearly she could have said to you okay let's these are the changes I
want and they probably would have said okay um the one thing they had to protect themselves against was like 50-50 prophets in case there are prophets I mean they're businessmen true and um but it didn't happen no and we and you know why it didn't happen go ahead I think we all know why it didn't happen because you now felt what that I couldn't trust their intentions to work equally because it was two against one with I felt I was tricked welcome back to the People's Court Harvey 11 here so do you guys think there
are power struggles in these charitable organizations yes I do what do you say well um I think it was 60 Minutes they had the Goodwill and they were showing that the CEOs made millions and millions of dollars and then some of the employees only made 25 30 there you go okay well that's fair fair enough what do you think I think sometimes it's just the way that people are treated and favoritism would should be all fav do you think there's less favoritism in charitable organizations than any other business no there is there is there is
always everywhere not she's right going inside the courtroom I don't think they were trying to trick you I think that you know they're businessmen and they were doing business and um but it doesn't matter because what ended up happening is she doesn't want to work with you period and why doesn't she have a right to decide I don't want to work with you without you sending her a $3,000 bill for something she had never agreed to pay for absolutely does 100% that's Jets your lawsuit you're suing her for $22,900 correct right because then after that
point then I had given Lisa plenty of opportunities I said listen you don't want to work with me that's okay I said here's a list and we agreed upon a list of people people's names and the amount that they had given who are my personal friends and family that I picked up off that list I said simply write a check to their name mail me the checks wait you're talking about the checks that they pledged for the movie correct because I was no return CU I would no longer be associated with it so they're not
going to support a movie where was that in the person's pledge in the they're pledging to support me and my family they were pledging to support me personally making films in addition to the the coke implants and the awareness but they did it because they were my friends family moms now according to you there was a very small percentage of his friends and family that were pledging right 12% of do you dispute that I I do because it's we have a list of names and we had mutual contacts that she automatically Nicks off and said
I'm not returning those has those pledges been collected yes is there anybody who wanted their money back yes a few did you give them their money back no because we got this bill what propelled you to send a bill after that point that I I realized that I wasn't going to get anywhere with getting the pledges back from my family and friends I had then said well then if if you don't want me on this project then at least you can then compensate me for the work that we have done because she agree to do
that no right no so at that point then I I had said I sent her an invoice which I have here for the breakdown to if you need to see it again NOP here's what I want to know uh on November 21st I see an email from Ralph I was never aware that script approval was a criteria for signing the agreement did I miss something we asked for a signature or any changes numerous times and put off now it appears that the rules have change and the facts that we have a great deal of time
physical production and Sweat Equity invested in this project to raise money to get it to where it is today are being completely discounted we have acted in good faith to develop trust within the team to make a great film together I'll need to get the agreement and any other agreements or contacts either written oral and implied that are attached to this film before I can move forward with confidence I don't blame you you want to do business the way you want to do business but I don't blame her she wants to do business the way
she wants to do business so I expect you all to just pick up your marbles and go home and stop playing with each other I don't expect you to come to court and decide that you're going to put in place a contract for hire that didn't exist how is it you come to court and and expect me to force her to pay you $2,900 I think you might have a point that all those people who pledge might be able to go sue her right because they pledged thinking they were helping you out you they were
giving you business so but you don't have standing to sue for them they have to sue for them right you guys had nothing in place and that's how this works I know this and you know this you work like this on the hope that something will happen and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't but you cannot pretend go back in history and then say well we just did this because we so if we known that we weren't going to have a future contract then now we want our B that's not how it works because
I can only enforce what actually existed not what you wish in retrospect you had done verdict for the defendant good luck and do me a favor will you please send the People's Court a copy of it sure we will be well the defender wins this verdict here in the People's Court come on out here um step right next to him what what's your reaction on this outcome here a little sad you know when when you put that much time and effort and something I'm doing for a family member it's kind of upsetting you know where
do you go from here do you stick with this as a goal maybe do your own thing or what well we've been doing our own films and we'll continue to make our own fil no on not this subject what about on this subject um there's you never say never right Never Say Never okay then head right down this way thank you never say never okay come on in and if you would just step right next to me right here you win this case um what do you think what do you think he was don't you
think he his motives were good no no I don't you don't what do you mean why not why don't you think so if he wants to sue us for almost $3,000 but it was his intentions to help his niece now there's obviously no U there was some testimony in there about the other contributors on the Kickstarter website and the possibility that his followers might come after you at that point what's your concern about that well this is evidence that didn't come up in court but he sent me a list of contributors who he wanted me
to refund their money all directly to him to send him the check which I didn't feel comfortable so just that was dishonest all right well good luck with the project good luck with everything you all right now Harvey okay so if you agree not to get a fee for your work and then you end up doing the work I'm telling you just forget about it if you if things don't work out almost always you are out of luck if you want to try and get money after the fact that will do it for this case
Lance for the next case on the way into the courtroom right now
