Can you be sued you for backing out of a classified listing sale.?

Someone has threatened to sue me because i agreed to buy an item on photo.net's classified section then about an hour later backed out of the sale because I won the same item on ebay and hadn't realized. ( This person turned out to be a criminal justice Lawyer? He threatened to sue me unless i bought his item. In this case a camera lens for 350 dollars on Photo.net All this for 350 dollar sale and all the negotiating was via E-mail. I told him especially after threats there is no way i was buying anything from him...

Does he have any grounds of suit from email documentation.

You can only be sued if he can prove that he has been harmed or suffered materially in some way as a result of you backing out (detrimental reliance, etc.). If he suffers no loss, then this does not constitute an enforceable contract under common law principles of duty or consideration in contracts.

Furthermore, since the item is $350, you might want to check your local laws concerning what are called "statute of frauds". This claim of his may be invalid since it was not in writing. UCC requires sales of items over $500 to be in writing, but some states have lower thresholds.

And his being a criminal justice lawyer is a load of crap on his part. The area of law this concerns is civil torts and contracts under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), entirely separate from criminal law.

Also, is he in the same state as you? He may not have the license to even practice law where you are.

A couple things to consider.

One is that it is super doubtfull that he is a lawyer. Maybe but the odds are super slim. Odds are that he is in a different state or county.

This would be a small claims case. So he would have to file where you live, have you served the papers and show up in person at court.

He has incurred no loss as he still has the lens.

Ignore him.

in America you can be sued for anything, but this isn't worth worrying about, most of all in this field is just reported to the service that provide the listings..............
no sweat......
tell the punk to sue you........
better yet, tell him you're suing him, then he'll disappear.....

He's probably not even a lawyer, if he was he wouldn't be so upset.
Ignore him, he'll go away

If it's only through e-mail, no. You don't have a binding contract and thus are free to change your mind at anytime.

You can inquire at the office of the state attorney general. Show that a lawyer is threatening to sue, to force you to buy something where you had changed your mind. The lawyer could be charged with cyber bullying, as well as the treat of a frivolous law suit. You can tell the attorney that any further correspondence will be considered harassment, and that you use harassment in the legal sense of the word. Then advise that you will file a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. The attorney will not like to hear that.

You should also report the person to photo.net, to see if the person should be kicked off the site. I doubt that the lawyer is acting in accordance with the terms and conditions of the site.


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