False abuse allegations

[shaggin]

What is the name of your state? California The court ordered temporary full custody to me in January 2005 and initially supervised visitation for his father after an arrest for DUI (his 5th in 20 years) and drugs in the car with my son. For about 8 months he has had visitation with our 12 year old son every other weekend no overnights. The custody evualation ordered by the court recommended I have custody. My ex is fighting that and we have a trial date in July. After his fathers arrest I took my son to a therapist. During the evaluation about 9 months ago his father in a declaration accused me of pushing our son agaist a wall, this was proven false by the evaluator.
His father had tried to stop me from taken our son to a therapist by sending a cease and disist letter to the therapist. Now that the evaluator report is out he sees how bad that looked and wanted to participate in the sessions. Last night we had a session where the therapist met his father for the first time. The therapist handed me a letter from the fathers attorney stating that my son has been calling him and leaving voicemail messages while his father had visition on the weekend saying that I was abusing him physically and emotionally. His attorney also asked in the letter to the therapist if she had reported the abuse to social services. What my ex didn't know is my son didn't want to lie to her and never told her what his father told him to say. What can the court do about false allegations of abuse?
I have read FAM code 3027.5 but it was my son making the call not my ex making a false report and the attorney was going by what was on his voicemail. Also, is there action I can take in civil court? How should I handle this? I thought about calling social services myself to have them question my son to prove there is no abuse, but my attorney said I'd be taking a chance that my son has been coached by my ex and if they beileve him even a little then they will refer it to the police and I will have to get a defense attorney. My son does want to go live with his "cool" dad in Oregon who is a drug user and let him do whatever he wants. Any thoughts, my attorney doesn't have a clue.

 

[stealth2]

Any thoughts, my attorney doesn't have a clue.

You need a new lawyer.

 

[shaggin]

Rather then starting a new thread I had a follow up question regarding these false allegations from my ex's attorney. My attorney was able to get copies of the messages my son had left him. In a nutshell the content was my son telling the attorney that he want to go live with his dad in Oregon, no mention of any type of abuse. It should be noted that during the custody evaluation the evaluator asked my son about these messages and he admitted that his dad had him call and that the content of the message was what his dad told him to say. My question is do I have a good case for libel against my ex's attorney? He made these allegations knowing they were false because nothing was said about abuse in the phone calls as the attorney claimed. I have never abused him emotionally let alone physically, I don't even believe in spanking. I will be seeing a attorney about this next week, but thought if anyone has had any experience in bringing a suit for libel against an attorney, they could share some advice.

 

[casa]

Rather then starting a new thread I had a follow up question regarding these false allegations from my ex's attorney. My attorney was able to get copies of the messages my son had left him. In a nutshell the content was my son telling the attorney that he want to go live with his dad in Oregon, no mention of any type of abuse. It should be noted that during the custody evaluation the evaluator asked my son about these messages and he admitted that his dad had him call and that the content of the message was what his dad told him to say. My question is do I have a good case for libel against my ex's attorney? He made these allegations knowing they were false because nothing was said about abuse in the phone calls as the attorney claimed. I have never abused him emotionally let alone physically, I don't even believe in spanking. I will be seeing a attorney about this next week, but thought if anyone has had any experience in bringing a suit for libel against an attorney, they could share some advice.

With the evaluator reporting it's in the child's best interest for you to retain custody~ That's the mostly likely scenario that will happen in court this summer.

Many Many Many parents falsely accuse of abuse during custody/divorce proceedings....without CPS investigating and issuing a "finding" of abuse...then what Dad says is hearsay. Also, it doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to figure out the kid was coached...how would he have Dad's attorney's number??

Also, it's difficult if not impossible to prove false reporting in CA. (All a parent or anyone else has to say is they "had a genuine belief the child was abused/neglected")

You can pursue a civil case...but you will have to prove libel. (Check out the libel/slander/defamation forum on this site). That is costly and would have to wait until the custody issues/allegations are cleared up first. By the time the custody issue is over~ It may not be worth your time, effort & money. You can certainly consult with a civil attorney to find out what the odds are given the exact facts in your case.

As far as suing the attorney~ Good Luck with that one.

YOUR attorney should be handling all this...if he isn't, it's time to get a new one.

 

[Just Blue]

With the evaluator reporting it's in the child's best interest for you to retain custody~ That's the mostly likely scenario that will happen in court this summer.

Many Many Many parents falsely accuse of abuse during custody/divorce proceedings....without CPS investigating and issuing a "finding" of abuse...then what Dad says is hearsay. Also, it doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to figure out the kid was coached...how would he have Dad's attorney's number??

Also, it's difficult if not impossible to prove false reporting in CA. (All a parent or anyone else has to say is they "had a genuine belief the child was abused/neglected")

You can pursue a civil case...but you will have to prove libel. (Check out the libel/slander/defamation forum on this site). That is costly and would have to wait until the custody issues/allegations are cleared up first. By the time the custody issue is over~ It may not be worth your time, effort & money. You can certainly consult with a civil attorney to find out what the odds are given the exact facts in your case.

As far as suing the attorney~ Good Luck with that one.

YOUR attorney should be handling all this...if he isn't, it's time to get a new one.

Seeing as the attorney wrote a letter to the counselor stating that the child had said, in a voicemail, that he was being abused and the voicemail said no such thing...Couldn't she report an ethical violation to the Bar? She would have proof...the recordings and the letter..

 

[casa]

Seeing as the attorney wrote a letter to the counselor stating that the child had said, in a voicemail, that he was being abused and the voicemail said no such thing...Couldn't she report an ethical violation to the Bar? She would have proof...the recordings and the letter..

Does OP have a transcription or copy of every voice mail? She didn't say so...she just said the child didn't tell the evaluator about abuse. OPs attorney would have to request or subpoena the voice mail tapes to be sure what was & what wasn't said. If the voicemails do not say anything about abuse~ I wouldn't count on the voicemails seeing the light of day in court otherwise.

Anyone can sue anyone over anything~ But there comes a time to establish if the fight is worth the cost, the time & effort....and whether any of this can be PROVEN.

 

[shaggin]

Thank you for all the advice. I can understand how false allegations are made all the time from one parent to another. But when it is the attorney making the false allegations, they should be held to a higher standard and accountable. Since we are going to trial, my attorney did a documentation request and his attorney turned over copies of all the tapes. He asked for a bunch of other things so he wouldn't know what we were after, all we really wanted was the tapes and we got them.

 

[casa]

Thank you for all the advice. I can understand how false allegations are made all the time from one parent to another. But when it is the attorney making the false allegations, they should be held to a higher standard and accountable. Since we are going to trial, my attorney did a documentation request and his attorney turned over copies of all the tapes. He asked for a bunch of other things so he wouldn't know what we were after, all we really wanted was the tapes and we got them.

If your attorney has ALL the tapes now...and NONE of them address abuse...then those, along with the letter he sent the therapist would be what you would use to file a complaint with the bar.

Yes, attorneys are held to a high standard~ But not all of them follow it. My nuttyX's attorney outright lied several times (even things such as service documents were falsified ) I couldn't prove it, but he received several raised eyebrows & a few admonishments from the judge....a judge he will have to continue working with.