They are counting on you being too embarrassed to call.
Someone posted intimate images or videos of you, or is threatening to. Maybe it was a former partner. Maybe it was someone you met online who now wants money. Maybe it is not even real — your face on someone else’s body, made with an app that took about a minute to use.
Whatever brought you here: this is not your fault, it is not rare, and it is not something you have to handle alone or by paying someone off.
I represent people whose intimate images and videos were shared, threatened, stolen, or fabricated. Florida and federal law both give you real claims here — more than most people realize. A conversation with me is confidential, costs nothing, and commits you to nothing.
If you are being extorted right now, call or text me at (305) 926-9452.
What to do right now
If someone is threatening to post images or videos unless you pay:
- Do not pay. Payment rarely ends it, and it usually invites more demands.
- Do not delete the messages. They are your evidence, and they are often the strongest evidence in the case.
- Stop responding, but do not block the account until the messages are saved.
Whether or not you are being extorted:
- Save everything. Screenshots that show the full URL, the account name, the date, and the message text. Save the files themselves, not just pictures of your screen.
- Write down where it appeared — every site, every username, every link.
- Report it to the platform. Most major platforms remove non-consensual intimate images and videos on request, and federal law now requires many of them to act quickly. This is free and it works more often than people expect.
- Consider a police report. This conduct is also a crime in Florida. A criminal case and a civil case are separate — you can have both, or only one.
- Do not access anyone else’s accounts to gather proof, and do not confront the person. Both can damage your case.
You do not need to have done any of this before you call. If it is already messy, it is still a case.
What the law lets you do
Most people assume there is nothing to be done, or that they would have to prove who did it first. Neither is usually true.
Florida has three civil statutes covering this, and which one fits depends on the facts — often only one does. Each lets a court award $10,000 or your actual damages, whichever is greater, along with attorney’s fees and an order to stop:
- Sexual cyberharassment — willfully and maliciously publishing a sexually explicit image of an identifiable person on a website, or sending it electronically to even one other person, without consent and contrary to that person’s reasonable expectation that it would stay private. The image has to carry information identifying the person, or that information has to be published at the same time in a way that makes clear it relates to the person depicted. This is the statute that usually fits a former partner who posts out of spite, and it is the one that also allows punitive damages. (Fla. Stat. § 784.049)
- Altered sexual depictions — creating or distributing a sexual image or video digitally altered to look like a real person. This is the deepfake statute. (Fla. Stat. § 836.13)
- Theft or unauthorized promotion of a sexually explicit image — narrower than the name suggests: it reaches images obtained by theft, and distribution carried out for financial gain. (Fla. Stat. § 836.14)
Federal law adds more, depending on the facts:
- A federal claim for disclosure of an intimate image or video, with actual damages or $150,000, attorney’s fees, and the ability to ask the court to protect your identity if you file under a pseudonym. (15 U.S.C. § 6851)
- If you were under 18 when the images or videos were made, and the conduct violated one of the federal child-exploitation statutes, a claim with actual damages or $150,000 and no filing deadline at all. (18 U.S.C. § 2255)
- If your images or videos were connected to trafficking or commercial exploitation, claims against the people and businesses that profited. (18 U.S.C. § 1595)
And these are not the only claims available. Depending on what happened, your case may also support other claims, including defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, claims arising from a hacked account or device, or copyright claims if you took the photograph yourself. Some of those claims can reach damages beyond the statutory amounts above; others are narrower. In the right case they matter more than the statutes do. Which ones fit is something I work out from your facts, not from a list.
If the image or video is AI-generated
Florida law covers sexual images and videos that have been digitally altered to depict an identifiable person, and it lets a court award the same $10,000 or your actual damages, whichever is greater, along with attorney’s fees and an order to stop. (Fla. Stat. § 836.13) It reaches both the person who made it and the person who spread it.
There may be a federal claim as well. The federal intimate-images statute does not address fabricated images one way or the other and no court has yet decided the question, so a case like this usually starts with the Florida statute, which covers it squarely.
The fact that the image or video is fake does not make the harm fake, and it does not mean you have no case. It changes which claim you bring.
How they got them can matter
If the images or videos came from a hacked account, a stolen or accessed phone, or a cloud backup someone got into, that is a separate wrong with its own claims — and often its own, better-documented trail of evidence. Login records, device access, and account activity are the kind of proof that does not depend on anyone believing you.
Tell me how you think they got them, even if you are not sure. It changes the investigation.
If you do not know who did it
This stops most people, and it should not.
When an image or video you made yourself is posted without permission, you generally own the copyright in it. That gives you a takedown tool most people have never heard of — and a subpoena, issued through the federal court clerk, that can require a platform to identify the account holder who uploaded it.
This route turns on who owns the copyright, not on who posted the file. If he simply screenshotted or re-recorded something you made, the copyright is still yours — copying your photograph does not make it his. But if what he posted is a recording of a live video call you never saved, there may be no copyright of yours to use. Which of those you are in is one of the first things I check.
The copyright route does not work in every case, and there are steps and requirements that have to be handled correctly. But “I don’t know who posted it” is frequently a solvable problem rather than the end of the road.
One thing to weigh before taking this route: a takedown notice identifies you to the platform, and if the person who posted it pushes back, your notice is forwarded to them and the material can go back up in about two weeks unless a lawsuit follows. Whether that trade is worth making in your case is something I will tell you before you decide.
What I can do
Get it taken down. Platform demands, takedown notices, and letters to the people hosting or sharing it. This is usually the first priority and sometimes the only thing a client wants.
Send a demand letter. In many of these cases a carefully written demand — citing the specific statutes, the damages exposure, and the attorney’s fees the other side could be ordered to pay — ends the matter without a lawsuit. For a lot of clients this is the right first step and the only one they need.
Identify who is responsible, where that is possible.
File suit where it is warranted, and try the case if it comes to that.
What these cases are actually like
I would rather you hear this from me than find it out later.
Some of these cases are straightforward: a demand letter goes out, the images come down, the matter ends sooner than later. Others are harder. The person responsible may be anonymous, overseas, or without money to pay a judgment — and a judgment you cannot collect is a real possibility worth discussing honestly at the start. Platforms are generally protected from being sued for what their users post, which is why cases usually run against the people, not the websites.
None of that means the case is not worth bringing. It means the goal has to be clear. For some clients the goal is money. For many it is getting the images down, getting a court order, and making it stop. Those are different cases, and knowing which one you want changes how I approach it.
If you are not sure what you want yet, that is fine. That is what the first conversation is for.
What it costs
These cases can be handled on a contingency fee, a flat fee, hourly, a hybrid, or another alternative fee arrangement. Which one makes sense depends on what you want to accomplish — a takedown and a demand letter is a different engagement from a lawsuit.
Several of the statutes above let a court order the other side to pay your attorney’s fees if you win, which changes the economics in your favor and is part of what makes a demand letter effective.
On a contingency fee: no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery. You will not owe me for case costs I advance if there is no recovery. On a flat fee, an hourly rate, or a hybrid, you may be responsible for case costs regardless of outcome — I will tell you which costs, and what they are likely to run, before you agree to anything. Everything is set out in writing before you sign.
Keeping your name out of it
This is the first question most people ask, and it is a fair one. The point of a case like this is to stop your exposure, not increase it.
Under the federal intimate-images statute, a court can act to protect the identity of someone filing under a pseudonym. Courts also use protective orders, sealing, and redaction, and a great deal can be resolved before a lawsuit is ever filed — which is the most private route of all.
None of it is automatic, and the person you are suing will know who you are. But what “public” means in your case is a conversation you and I have at the beginning, so the choice is yours and you make it with the facts.
Deadlines
There is no single deadline for these cases, and anyone who gives you one number is guessing.
The time limits run separately for each claim, and they vary by which statute applies, what happened, how old you were, and who the defendant is. Some are short. Some are longer. At least one federal claim, for certain images or videos made when you were a minor, has no deadline whatsoever.
What that means practically: some claims that feel too old are not, and some that feel recent have a clock running. The only way to know is to ask, and asking costs nothing.
Sextortion & Revenge Porn FAQs
Someone is threatening to post my pictures or videos unless I pay. What do I do?
Do not pay, and do not delete anything. Payment rarely ends it and usually invites more demands. Save the messages, stop responding, and call a lawyer or the police. The threat itself may be a crime, whether or not anything is ever posted. Whether you also have a civil claim usually turns on what was actually published, which is one of the first things I look at.
Is revenge porn illegal in Florida?
Yes, in two senses. It is a crime, and separately it can give you the right to sue the person who did it. Where the statute applies, a court can award $10,000 or your actual damages, whichever is greater, along with your attorney’s fees and an order to stop.
Do I have to go to the police first?
No. A civil case does not require a police report or a criminal charge. If there is a criminal case, I work alongside it — though in some situations a pending criminal case can pause parts of a civil one, and I’ll tell you if that applies to yours. If there is not, your case proceeds on its own.
I sent the pictures or videos willingly. Does that mean I consented?
No. Sending an image or video to one person is not permission to publish it to the world. This is the most common reason people talk themselves out of calling, and it is wrong as a matter of law.
The image or video is fake — it was made with AI. Can I still sue?
Yes, under Florida law. Fla. Stat. § 836.13 covers sexual images and videos that are digitally altered to look like a real person.
I don’t know who posted it. Is there anything I can do?
Often, yes. If it is a photo or video you made yourself, copyright law provides both a takedown route and a subpoena, issued through the federal court clerk, that can require the platform to identify the uploader. That route turns on who owns the copyright. If someone screenshotted or re-recorded something you made, the copyright is still yours. If what was posted is a recording of a live call you never saved, there may be nothing of yours to claim — though other claims may still reach the person. It does not work in every case, but not knowing the person’s name is frequently not the obstacle it appears to be.
Can I sue the website?
Usually not. Federal law largely protects platforms from liability for what their users post. That is why these cases run against the people responsible. The platform side is generally handled through takedown demands rather than a lawsuit.
Will my name be in the public record?
Not necessarily. The federal statute lets a court protect the identity of a plaintiff filing under a pseudonym, and courts use protective orders, sealing, and redaction. Matters resolved before a lawsuit is filed stay the most private. You and I decide this together, before anything is filed.
It happened years ago. Is it too late?
Maybe not. The deadlines differ for each claim, and one federal claim — for certain images or videos made when you were under 18 — has no deadline at all. Some of the newer Florida statutes have no deadline written into them, which is not the same as having no deadline, and no court has yet decided what applies. It is worth asking.
What will this cost me?
It depends on what you want done. A demand letter is typically a flat fee, so you know the cost up front. A lawsuit may be contingency, hourly, hybrid, or another arrangement. On a contingency fee, you will not owe me for case costs I advance if there is no recovery; on the others you may be responsible for costs either way. Several of these statutes let a court order the other side to pay your fees if you win. It is settled in writing before I start.
I’m embarrassed. Do I have to tell you everything?
No. Tell me what you are comfortable telling me, and I take it from there. I have had this conversation before, I am not going to judge you, and nothing you say in a consultation is shared with anyone — whether or not you hire me.
If I’m not the right lawyer
Some of these matters belong with a lawyer in another state, or one who does nothing but this work. If that is true of yours, I will say so and help you get there. You will not be passed along; you will be introduced.
Call or text me at (305) 926-9452 or send a message below. Confidential. No obligation.
Dedicated trial advocacy for the injured, exploited, and abused.
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