Sueing my ex's father

What is the name of your state? Washington

Simple story, I was assault by my ex's father, all on his end, haymakered me in the face without warning or provoke, left a huge bruise surrounding my giant black eye, I filed a police report that night and he was arrested and served with criminal charges (assault 4). This was about a week ago. Because of my black eye, my particular employment has been jeopordized, and my hours at work were severely cut. My employer didn't like a worker with a beat up face. My question is, can I sue him for money? He has caused me massive physical pain, and emotional stress, as well as directly effecting my income. I could use some advice on how to approach this, thank you.

epsilondelta said:

My question is, can I sue him for money? He has caused me massive physical pain, and emotional stress, as well as directly effecting my income.

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You can sue him for your damages. Make sure you have copies of the hospital and doctor bills, evidence of lost wages, pictures of the injuries, etc.

Well, I was just checked out by the EMT when I was at the police station, it was a black eye, so I didn't go to the hospital. The police took pictures, it's included in the report. Couldn't I have a case just on the fact he caused me pain? Also, what would I need to show as proof if I was terminated from my job because of my black eye, I don't think my employer would put that in writing.

Has your ex's father been convicted of assault or just charged? That may impact your situation.

You're speculating that your hours have been reduced because your employer doesn't like having an employee around who has a black eye. In court, you need proof. Considering that black eyes don't last for months, the average person might assume that there was another reason that the employer might want to terminate you. You can't claim damages because the employer might terminate you because, barring a clause in your employment contract or a violation of Federal law (doesn't exist here), an employer can terminate an employee without cause.

Get a restraining order against your ex's father, if you haven't already.

He has been charged, not yet convincted, he will be though, he has a prior record and I have a witness (his daughter).

So, can I just sue for pain and suffering?

epsilondelta said:

So, can I just sue for pain and suffering?

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You can sue for anything you want. A black eye... might be worth $200 or so.

Have you actually been fired? What kind of work do you do?

Also, be prepared to answer all the usual questions of whether and how much each of you had been drinking or using drugs, what was going on at the time, and what set him off (if you know). He's likely to blame you for his actions, after all.

Interesting that you didn't mention in the first post that the daughter was present. Did she say anything to her father before he hit you? What was her reaction afterwards?

Sue if you want, but don't expect to get much money. It's just not that kind of injury.

Juries can be erratic with cases of assault (it's easy to interpret as mutual combat, or self-defense; especially an older man hitting a younger man).
There is probably more nullification on that charge than any other.

If Dad will appear as a sympathetic figure to the jury, he will probably be acquitted in criminal court.
Consider how you will look to the jury/public.

If he is convicted, you can ask for restitution from the criminal court.

Suing in civil court for damages, you will have a lower standard of proof.
Your damages have to be proven; it sounds as though you'd get a few hundred.
The attorney will cost considerably more.

Okay, I'll give you the whole situation, it'll make a lot more sense. It was my girlfriends birthday, and she had plans with her Dad to go out to dinner. She stopped by my house after work and told me she wanted me to go with, and called her dad up and told him that she wanted me to be there. I didn't think it was a big deal, her dad was usually very friendly to me actually, but one thing you should know about him is that he's on disability for being unable to work, he suffered a heart attack a few years ago and he's been a little...off...ever since. Not retarted or stupid, just kind of...off. We drove to go pick him up, and my girlfriend (his daughter) went to go get him, while I got out of the vehicle and lit up a smoke, leaning against the passenger side of the car. She walked back over to me after knocking on his door, and he came storming out to the car, looking like a child about to throw a temper tantrum. I didn't say anything, or even look at him really, I was thinking about something else, smoking. He climbed into the passenger seat of the car and slammed the door. My girlfriend went up to the window and boldly said "dad whats your problem?". My natural instinct was to turn away and pretend like I'm not listening, and that's when it happened. All I remember after that was hearing/feeling the car door fly open, and as I was turning my head to look towards it, I got haymakered right in the face. He lost his balance and fell over (apparently) and my girlfriend got in his way when he stood up and kept him from getting another clean shot, though he did punch me 6-7 more times in the body. I didn't throw a punch back. The man is 59, and I'm 20.
Let me know if you need any other details.