Can I sue someone for repeated harassment and blatant extortion? The situation is as follows: A man asked me for help with his website. The request was for setting up a shopping cart that he could take orders with via the web. He repeatedly emphasized that "the best deals are made on a handshake" and thus we have no contract but had a verbal agreement that I would be paid 10% of gross sales that the site produced. The shopping cart software that I had him purchase was unfortunately too advanced for his current web hosting service and I politely offered to host it on my personal web host for him until he got a new server provider. Ideally I just wanted to be paid for doing some coding and installing the shopping cart. The man stated that if I didn't want a percentage of sales, he would pay me $500 for the work I had done and we would part ways. After a few weeks of getting to know this guy, things seemed more and more shady.

This man is definitely trying to extort you.

He is also attempting to bully you into continuing to work for him for free.

Encountering people like this idiot is one of the hazards of being self-employed.

Unfortunately, since you have no written contract, you will not be able to recover any money from him if you sue him. However, if he attempts to sue you, you can counter-sue for malicious prosecution, and filing a frivolous lawsuit.

At this point, I strongly urge you to seek counsel. Most attorneys do not charge for an initial consultation. What the attorney can do is, if this bully attempts to sue you for ANY amount, is write him a letter, saying that you are now represented by the law firm, and all correspondence is to come to the attorney.