Photographer lost all my wedding photos

My civil wedding ceremony was held in Virginia, and I hired a professional photographer from DC to take photos during and after the ceremony. I have paid his fees in full and also paid extra to cover his travel cost and tips. A few weeks later, the photographer told me by email that his computer had crashed and he had lost all my photos. I immediately asked him to contact a professional data recovery service, but he took the computer to a repair shop, which probably did further damage to the hard drive/data, and told me that my precious photos had gone to "the hard drive heaven"!

I sent him an email demanding the following compensations: 

(1) a total refund for the wedding session + tips and the travel fee; and
(2) his hard drive that contained the photos + $300 (we will try to hire a professional recovery service to hopefully retrieve the data).

The email was sent two weeks ago, but the photographer has not responded ever since. I am very upset that the photographer has lost our precious wedding photos (before I even get to see them) due to his negligence and human errors, and he is now even ignoring my request after he has failed to deliver the service.

How can I take legal action against him (to make him give me the refund and hopefully the hard drive)? Unfortunately, I do not know his physical address, only his name, business website and Facebook account, email, and phone #.

Do I need to hire a lawyer or I can file a claim in the court by myself? Which court and in which state?

What should I do? Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!

所有跟帖： 

• 回复：Photographer lost all my wedding photos -littlelamb123- ♀ (2704 bytes) () 06/28/2012 postreply 21:24:56

• 回复：回复：Photographer lost all my wedding photos -henxiaoloulou- ♀ (2202 bytes) () 06/29/2012 postreply 00:13:26

• 回复：回复：回复：Photographer lost all my wedding photos -littlelamb123- ♀ (606 bytes) () 06/29/2012 postreply 08:22:39

• 能烦请老貓和其他能人帮我解答一下以上问题吗？ -littlelamb123- ♀ (0 bytes) () 06/29/2012 postreply 18:06:13

• 回复：回复：回复：回复：Photographer lost all my wedding photos -Henxiaoloulou- ♀ (677 bytes) () 06/29/2012 postreply 19:06:10

• 回复：Photographer lost all my wedding photos -3271963- ♀ (301 bytes) () 06/29/2012 postreply 19:15:08

• 回复：回复：Photographer lost all my wedding photos -littlelamb123- ♀ (156 bytes) () 06/29/2012 postreply 20:20:38