Mississippi. My husband currently has custody of one child and his ex has the other child. Both children have indicated to us that they have suffered abuse at the hand of their step-father. Each time we were told of abuse we reported it to DHS in their county. We have custody of the one child because the mother abandoned her at our house two years ago. After she told us everything they had been doing to her and her brother we sent a very curteous, non-threatining letter to the mother asking her to discuss these problems with us and outlining the things the child had told us. Seven months ago they sued my husband, his mother and step-father for slander. They claim the custody suit has "disturbed the sanctity of their home" and that the reports to DHS are slander. They are sueing for 2 million dollars. Since that time the child we have, has given a taped interview with Child Advocacy, and the lady their ordered another DHS investigation. Also the child has been seeing a counselor, who is appalled at what she suffered in that home. He is recommending that she not have visitation unless she wants it and if she ever decides she wants visitation, that it be supervised. So even though there was not enough for criminal abuse charges, it is obvious that there was something going on. Please forgive the length of this post, but I have several questions.
1. What are their chances of winning this thing?
2. They are making my husband's mother give a deposition, however she is disabled and always heavily medicated. How can they depose her if she is so heavily medicated.
3. At the time of the so called "slander" the ex was not working and her husband worked in Africa. Don't you have to prove financial loss?
4. Most of the information that we got, and that they are saying is slander, came directly from the children. How will we be able to prove that we did not make this stuff up, without involving the kids?
5. We have two different lawyers, one for the slander, and one for the custody, but they have the same lawyer handling both of their cases. Our custody lawyer does not want anyone deposed without her there. She is afraid they will ask questions that will affect the custody case. But the attorney handling the slander, is upset by this and says that there is no way to work around three lawyer's schedules. We have to have two different lawyers because the custody case is in our county and the slander case is in the ex's county which are about six hours apart.
6. Is there any way to keep depositions related to the slander case, from being used in the custody case.
7. When we first hire our attorney she said she was going to easily get the slander suit thrown out by a judge as being frivilous. She has not done this yet. Is this something she would do after depositions?
8. The children have told us of the ex's daily drinking, stripping at parties (in front of the kids) Pulling guns on people she thought were private detectives. Slapping the kids in the face. Her husband has been arrested many times on DUI, drug, and assault charges. He has rarely held a job for more than six months. He has a long list of known trashy behaviour and he abused his first wife (she will testify) These are not people who had a "good name" to start with. Don't they have to prove that any "slander" damaged their good name?
Sorry about the length. Thanks!!!
1. What are their chances of winning this thing?
2. They are making my husband's mother give a deposition, however she is disabled and always heavily medicated. How can they depose her if she is so heavily medicated.
3. At the time of the so called "slander" the ex was not working and her husband worked in Africa. Don't you have to prove financial loss?
4. Most of the information that we got, and that they are saying is slander, came directly from the children. How will we be able to prove that we did not make this stuff up, without involving the kids?
5. We have two different lawyers, one for the slander, and one for the custody, but they have the same lawyer handling both of their cases. Our custody lawyer does not want anyone deposed without her there. She is afraid they will ask questions that will affect the custody case. But the attorney handling the slander, is upset by this and says that there is no way to work around three lawyer's schedules. We have to have two different lawyers because the custody case is in our county and the slander case is in the ex's county which are about six hours apart.
6. Is there any way to keep depositions related to the slander case, from being used in the custody case.
7. When we first hire our attorney she said she was going to easily get the slander suit thrown out by a judge as being frivilous. She has not done this yet. Is this something she would do after depositions?
8. The children have told us of the ex's daily drinking, stripping at parties (in front of the kids) Pulling guns on people she thought were private detectives. Slapping the kids in the face. Her husband has been arrested many times on DUI, drug, and assault charges. He has rarely held a job for more than six months. He has a long list of known trashy behaviour and he abused his first wife (she will testify) These are not people who had a "good name" to start with. Don't they have to prove that any "slander" damaged their good name?
Sorry about the length. Thanks!!!