defermation of character

What is the name of your state? NH

I am a family practitioner. Part of a large group practice. Bitter divorce. Pending DCYS allegations. I am due to go to court tomorrow. Case worker today faxed confidential info and allegations to my office on open fax without my consent or knowledge. Front staff, nurses and several other office employees read this info.

As you can imagine, now can here a pin drop when I enter those parts of the office.

I will now need to sit down with my partners and discuss, one has already heard the allegations and approached me. This had not been a public issue, I had not told anyone.

Do I have grounds for legal action.



In NH DCYS actions are confidential.

This will poten. have a negative effect on my professional reputation

Once the info is brought to light in a courtroom, it will be public information anyway. Being embarrassed is not a cause for legal action.

GAAtty

I do not know what DCYS is, but I presume it is the equivalent of Juvenile Court. In Georgia, juvenile court proceedings are also closed sessions, so the general public would not have known about it. However, the agency in Georgia that does such cases, Department of Family and Children's Services, has all kinds of immunity. My guess is that the New York equivalent also does. If you get past their immunity, then it seems as if it is "libel per se", because it implies a criminal action on your part and the fax was "published" , which means that someone other than you and the writer saw it. However, getting past the immunity is the thing, and even then, finding the kind of attorney who does defamation cases is another problem. Try civil rights attorneys, because they do the most lawsuits against governmental agencies, and would know about the immunity question. Very few will charge you for consultation. They will also know the attorneys who do defamation.