After an 18-month dispute with photographer David Strick, the Los Angeles Times was awarded $266,000 by an arbitrator  according to court documents obtained by The Wrap:

The case was decided in June, when retired judge Peter D. Lichtman, the arbitrator in the matter, dismissed Strick’s claims.

“Judge Lichtman properly found that the Times was entitled to recover the substantial cost it incurred in defending against Mr. Strick’s meritless lawsuit, and recognized that the conduct of Mr. Strick’s counsel contributed to the high cost of this litigation,” Kelli Sager, who represented the paper in the matter, told TheWrap in a statement.

Strick began providing photographs for the Times in 2007. The Times chose not to pick up his option in May 2010, but continued to use the photographs that Strick had taken while under contract to the newspaper. Strick attempted to block the Times from doing so, claiming that he owned the copyright to the photographs. The paper refused, citing a Services Agreement that Strick had entered into.

Read your contracts carefully, boys and girls.

Strick’s attorney, Karen Moskowitz, said her client plans on appealing the decision.