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Mental Anguish?

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lost189

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida?

I am going on thursday to a hearing about an injunction. Basically the petitioner was arrested for assult on my mother. Well she lives out of our town and now he is coming at us. Basically it's all bogus. I was elsewhere the 2 days when supposedly i threatened him. Anyway, he calls my fiance and left a message basically threatening and saying nasty things about an embarrassing and personal health problem i have. Now not only have 2 police officers had to hear this but also a judge will (hopefully not the court). I have my phone record to prove i did not call him and testimonies and receipts to help my story. Then on top of all of this he was storing some furniture of my grandmother(who passed away) that's like 90 years old;he's saying he's destroyed it which on top of everything else has caused me to breakdown and have an anxiety attack an cry about everynight. Can i sue him for mental anguish?

P.S
He mentally abused my mother and I for about 13 years. I let my mom and himdo whatever they wanted because I was not getting involved and now he's coming at us.....What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 


quincy

Senior Member
You can sue to collect on a mental anguish/emotional distress injury. Anyone can sue anyone else for pretty much any reason at all. But I do not see, from what you have posted here, that you have nearly enough to support a winning lawsuit that would result in such an award of damages. Filing a suit is likely to wind up being a costly, and ultimately futile, exercise on your part.

To make any award for a mental anguish injury feasible, you would need accompanying and provable reputational injury, caused generally by defamatory statements made to others (besides the police or in a court proceeding) or through the public disclosure of private information. You would sue on the conduct that caused the injury (defamation, invasion of privacy) and not on the injury itself.

Proving that any conduct was severe enough to result in injury that should be compensated would be your challenge.

Because mental anguish and emotional distress refer to the psychological harm that can result from another's conduct, an award for mental anguish would require proof that the conduct causing the injury was "outrageous" enough to result in medical help being sought, and medical treatment being necessary - in order to be convincing. Saying you cry at night doesn't cut it.

The threats you are receiving are for the police to handle, so you should continue to report them.

You can consult with a Florida attorney and go over all of the facts of your situation, if you are looking to find a legal solution to the problems you are having with this character. A restraining order seems the most logical.


(I saw your message to me, lost189, and I replied to it.)
 
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