we have a tenant who has just moved out. she owes us a fair amount of back rent and we are still going to the eviction hearing to try and get our money. the issue I need help with is in the past several months of trying to get her evicted however, we have been subjected to a huge amount of harassment and slander (to the point where she has emailed and called and messaged people on our social websites and mutual acquaintances), property damage, and I believe she even attempted to break in, after she had moved, to get things she left (we have a police report pending, we're just waiting on fingerprint returns). on top of all that, because of her slander, my girlfriend has lost around 3 months of modelling work because of this persons harassment and slander of my girlfriend. I am in the process of obtaining hard copies of all of the emails and messages she sent, as well as statemnets from those she tried to slander us to. what do I do next? where will all this go?
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how do i proceed/ what can i do?
- Thread Starter KielFrank
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Proserpina
Moderator
Honestly? I know it's annoying but this will be difficult for you to pursue successfully in terms of defamation.
One, you'd have to have tangible damages - that can be hard to begin with.
But more importantly, defamation suits are costly to litigate in terms of time AND money (think 3-4 years if quick, and $50-60k if cheap) and worse, you are very unlikely going to be able to collect on any money judgment.
What you might want to do is have an attorney draw up a cease-and-desist letter. Although these don't carry any legal weight, they are often enough to scare the objectionable person into stopping their nonsense.
As a practical move, change your social network settings.
One, you'd have to have tangible damages - that can be hard to begin with.
But more importantly, defamation suits are costly to litigate in terms of time AND money (think 3-4 years if quick, and $50-60k if cheap) and worse, you are very unlikely going to be able to collect on any money judgment.
What you might want to do is have an attorney draw up a cease-and-desist letter. Although these don't carry any legal weight, they are often enough to scare the objectionable person into stopping their nonsense.
As a practical move, change your social network settings.
fredrikklaw
Moderator
Finger Prints?
KEILFRANK:
"Where all this will go?" depends entirely on how far you and your girlfriend are willing to take this matter!
For the ex-tenant's trash talking and what not, you can either consider the whole thing to be just a storm in a tea cup, put it down to experience and move on with your lives, or you can get litigious and spend thousands of dollars prosecuting a slander suit which will have you in and out of court rooms from anywhere between 12 to 24 months.
And while you may have cause to pursue a slander suit, you have absolutely no cause to pursue the ex-tenant for burglary. None whatsoever, and I am amazed that the police have taken your complaint as far as they have, even crossing into the ridiculousness by dusting the place for prints. Of course the place is going to be plastered all over with the tenant's prints; she lived there after all.
It is a legal impossibility to charge someone with burglary for breaking into her own place in order to steal her own personal belonging. Because until a judge issues an order setting the time and the place for the eviction, and until that time has come to pass, the place is still hers and she can come and go as she pleases. In fact, you may well find yourself in some hot water for entering the rental unit before eviction is complete. So, save yourselves a lot of unnecessary headache and wait until after the upcoming hearing to enter the property.
As for the slander; well, from what you have said, your girlfriend's loss of income, which if as you say was directly due to the tenant's online rambling and other acts of character assassination is very much actionable. Because gone are the days when slander actions where commenced and insanely maintained for simply having feelings of hurt and embarrassment. Now days, it is not enough just to say so-and-so slandered me, because in order to recover, a plaintiff has to show actual damages suffered as the result of the slander.
That said keep in mind the neutralizing factor in this equation which is: truth is an absolute defence to a charge of slander. Meaning that even though your girlfriend lost contracts because of something the tenant said about her on line, she cannot recover if what was said is the truth and was not a made up story.
If shutting her up (the tenant) is your primary concern, you may want to take out a restraining order against her and see if that works.
fredrikklaw
KEILFRANK:
"Where all this will go?" depends entirely on how far you and your girlfriend are willing to take this matter!
For the ex-tenant's trash talking and what not, you can either consider the whole thing to be just a storm in a tea cup, put it down to experience and move on with your lives, or you can get litigious and spend thousands of dollars prosecuting a slander suit which will have you in and out of court rooms from anywhere between 12 to 24 months.
And while you may have cause to pursue a slander suit, you have absolutely no cause to pursue the ex-tenant for burglary. None whatsoever, and I am amazed that the police have taken your complaint as far as they have, even crossing into the ridiculousness by dusting the place for prints. Of course the place is going to be plastered all over with the tenant's prints; she lived there after all.
It is a legal impossibility to charge someone with burglary for breaking into her own place in order to steal her own personal belonging. Because until a judge issues an order setting the time and the place for the eviction, and until that time has come to pass, the place is still hers and she can come and go as she pleases. In fact, you may well find yourself in some hot water for entering the rental unit before eviction is complete. So, save yourselves a lot of unnecessary headache and wait until after the upcoming hearing to enter the property.
As for the slander; well, from what you have said, your girlfriend's loss of income, which if as you say was directly due to the tenant's online rambling and other acts of character assassination is very much actionable. Because gone are the days when slander actions where commenced and insanely maintained for simply having feelings of hurt and embarrassment. Now days, it is not enough just to say so-and-so slandered me, because in order to recover, a plaintiff has to show actual damages suffered as the result of the slander.
That said keep in mind the neutralizing factor in this equation which is: truth is an absolute defence to a charge of slander. Meaning that even though your girlfriend lost contracts because of something the tenant said about her on line, she cannot recover if what was said is the truth and was not a made up story.
If shutting her up (the tenant) is your primary concern, you may want to take out a restraining order against her and see if that works.
fredrikklaw
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