My exhusband's wife filed a false report against my husband in January of this year. Needless to say, the charges were disgusting and this was not the first time this woman has done this. It totally turned our lives upside down for a couple of weeks, and in the process, made my husband extremely depressed. After all was said and done, this woman finally admitted that the evidence she claimed to have had did not exist. This evidence was my oldest daughter's psych file that this woman had no right to, since my daughter is now 22 and was adopted by my husband when she was 18.
Manuel Alzamora JuarezCar / Auto Accident LawyerBerkeley, CA ·
You can always file a civil lawsuit. However, these types of lawsuits require hourly fees. If yopu file an attorney that will do this case in a contingency, never let him go.. Best of luck.
You may be able to find a lawyer to take this case on a contingency, but it may not be worth it. Pursuing this type of action will bring out all of the accusations. It could upset your husband and daughter, without any real benefit. It is sometimes best to let sleeping dogs lie.
As I understand your situation, your husband may have a claim for malicious prosecution, defamation, and false light breach of privacy against your ex-husband's wife, and your daughter may have a claim for breach of privacy against the same lady and whoever released the information to her. The problem with this type of case, as the other attorneys suggest, is that you usually are not looking at large damage awards and, if your husband or your daughter wind such an award, they may have a hard time collecting from the trouble maker.
On the other hand, if these false allegations are ruining your life, you may want to pay an attorney to write your ex-husband's wife a cease and desist letter or even file a lawsuit, which I predict she will not pay much to defend unless she has money to burn. Some attorneys including myself will take cases such as this on a mixed hourly rate/contingency or flat fee/contingency agreement depending on the strength of the case, although I agree that not many attorneys will do these on pure contingency since one-third of $0 is $0.
Your husband can pursue such a case, however, if the defendant (his ex-wife) is judgment proof (without assets or income to pay the judgment) then it is not worth the time or effort. If your husband has the evidence to prove that his ex-wife was acting in a malicious manner, then a jury may award a significant amount to him. I tried an invasion of privacy/false light case last summer (2011) in Anne Arundel County wherein the jury awarded my client $850,000.00 under similar circumstances.
Good luck.
