Advice for injuries due to cyberstalking

S

Shadow1

New Member
Jurisdiction
Ohio
Hello, my husband and I have experienced cyberstalking, as well as repeated, unwanted contact through phone and mail. My parents are the main perpetrators, and they have even ignored a cease and desist letter that we sent them. The injuries that I've sustained as a result include, but are not limited to, repeated hospitalizations for physical and mental health, ongoing therapy for trauma/PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety, and many other such expenses. We have filed police reports as well as done our due diligence to lock down social media and other accounts (including changing a phone number), but they still find ways to get through and pass messages to regain control. How can we get a lawyer to help us in this kind of situation?
 
Stephanie Webber said:
Hello, my husband and I have experienced cyberstalking, as well as repeated, unwanted contact through phone and mail. My parents are the main perpetrators, and they have even ignored a cease and desist letter that we sent them. The injuries that I've sustained as a result include, but are not limited to, repeated hospitalizations for physical and mental health, ongoing therapy for trauma/PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety, and many other such expenses. We have filed police reports as well as done our due diligence to lock down social media and other accounts (including changing a phone number), but they still find ways to get through and pass messages to regain control. How can we get a lawyer to help us in this kind of situation?
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Ohio State Bar Association for Legal Professionals | OSBA
 
I don't think it is clear you have any reasonable legal action to take.
You could simply remove yourself from social media, and you could choose to not answer their phone calls or read their emails.
You don't describe anything that suggests a restraining order would be granted or that anything illegal is occurring.
 
Tax Counsel said:
Repeated unwanted contact is generally good enough to get an injunction or restraining order.
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Depends on the nature and frequency of the contact. That wasn't really described.

OP's description of damages suggest being prone to overreaction. Parents may have good reason to be concerned. It just isn't clear with what is given if a like has been crossed.
 
mightymoose said:
OP's description of damages suggest being prone to overreaction. Parents may have good reason to be concerned. It just isn't clear with what is given if a like has been crossed.
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Whether there is a good claim for money damages is a separate matter from what qualifies for an injunction, and in these kinds of situations it is often hard to prove the case for money damages.
 
Tax Counsel said:
Whether there is a good claim for money damages is a separate matter from what qualifies for an injunction, and in these kinds of situations it is often hard to prove the case for money damages.
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Eh... I didn't mean money. I was referring to the "injuries" described in the initial post. As described it doesn't seem to justify any restraining order, but there could be additional details that tip the scale.
 
mightymoose said:
Eh... I didn't mean money. I was referring to the "injuries" described in the initial post. As described it doesn't seem to justify any restraining order, but there could be additional details that tip the scale.
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I'm not talking about a domestic violence restraining order. I'm talking about what can generally be described as a civil harassment order, though the exact term and standards for getting them vary significantly from state to state. These injunctions tend to be available for a broader range of conduct than a domestic violence restraining order. In Ohio, an order for an injunction can be obtained based on repeated conduct that may cause "mental distress." The OP's post suggests that the parents' conduct is repeated and has indeed caused mental distress, so there is certainly a possibility here of getting an injunction. The OP would want to see a civil litigator in Ohio to review the specific facts to see how likely the order is to be granted.
 
Stephanie Webber said:
my husband and I have experienced cyberstalking, as well as repeated, unwanted contact through phone and mail. My parents are the main perpetrators, and they have even ignored a cease and desist letter that we sent them. The injuries that I've sustained as a result include, but are not limited to, repeated hospitalizations for physical and mental health, ongoing therapy for trauma/PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety
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If you have questions beyond the one you asked, you're going to have to provide a better explanation of what your parents did that allegedly resulted in these extreme injuries.

Stephanie Webber said:
How can we get a lawyer to help us in this kind of situation?
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Call some local lawyers and set up consultations. Did you really not know that?
 
More details.......we have contacted numerous lawyers and have great difficulty getting even a call back to set up a consult. For those who have not experienced either in person or cyber stalking, it can cause injuries in multiple ways (physical, mental health, financial, etc.) and I have documentation from doctors and other professionals proving these kinds of injuries that I previously did not have. There were also times where I could not work at all or had to miss work due to physical symptoms I was experiencing. While I don't want to get too personal or specific on a public forum, the cyber stalking included frequent and long face book messages, text messages, e-mails, phone calls, and letters from multiple people in order to appease and get me to comply with my narcissistic parent's wishes and beliefs. These would often happen when I was at work, around certain milestones, holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, etc.
Creating fake accounts, using other people in person or through social media, and many other means have been used to try to control.
 
I am the OP's husband.

For topics like stalking, please encourage forum members not to use human names :)

justblue - thanks for the link! We did already try there however thank you just the same.

Regarding "pay one" and "call some" - we would love to pay one. We have called several dozen. We are both untrained in law and so we have to turn places like this to try and figure out how to articulate our problem - or, how to discern that it is a non-starter. I strongly suspect there are many practical, professional reasons lawyers do not prefer this kind of case (how to mitigate those objections was the premise behind the OP's post).

We have had five consults. One said they had established a virtual presence in OH, but he didn't want to go beyond the consult and didn't state why. One said to spin this as private nuisance, but didn't want to go beyond the consult and didn't state why, even though I tried to do the homework he gave me to work on our articulation and formulation. One does take cases like this, but she said we were failing to articulate a sufficiently big problem. One was, for lack of a kinder word, triggered by her own alienation from her kids, so she thought it was a non-starter. One said that they don't take cases like this, and did not provide any further feedback other than encouraging us to keep looking. Throughout all of this, we spent a few hundred hours trying to focus and streamline our case and trying to learn from each interaction. Typically, we spend a minimum of 1-2 weeks revising after we get feedback.

Like Hunting, we have not had much success with law enforcement. One investigator told us that OH wouldn't seek extradition from IL for something that in OH is a misdemeanor, and every other agency said our local city had jurisdiction.

Mighty, I know you asked for more detail, we tried to start with a lower level of detail rather than start with a wall like this post to avoid TLDR responses. Suffice it to say, three times they stated in writing intent to inflict emotional distress if they didn't get their way, they followed through, and it worked. The only example I've been able to find online regarding IIED is a nursing home worker telling a resident their family member was dead when it wasn't true, that is directly analogous here x7... except she wasn't fully shunned or we would be enjoying life and not posting here. The manipulation through others, the circumventing of blocks, enough is enough. We have two psychological professionals willing to testify plus notes from another we haven't asked yet. There have been many other actions I think are outrageous, but that'll be up to any judge/jury/administrator. For the sake of argument, let's go with Counsel's recommendation that it's at least worth sitting down with a lawyer.

We want it stopped before they start cyberstalking our kids and manipulating them too.

First, did we post this in the right forum, or would another category be more appropriate?
Second, is it standard industry practice to just not respond to a contact request?
Third, what are some ways that we can increase our chances of getting a callback? This could be guessing a case value beyond our receipts, this could be choosing the right topic (private nuisance vs IIED), this could be sharing more detail...
Fourth, is it better to ask for help with a restraining order, or better to ask for help litigating? One is probably a flat fee and the other might net them more money.

We have been operating on the "less is more" principle in the hopes that they could help us answer these questions correctly, rather than us incorrectly presenting.

Thanks again for the thoughtful input.
 
Thank you for the additional detail.

It seems your trouble is likely the ability to prove reasonable damages. I say that not knowing exactly what was said or how it was communicated.

Despite other's efforts to circumvent your blocks, it seems your best option is to continue to block or simply withdraw from social media sources.

Change your phone number, your email etc, and don't divulge them to anyone who doesn't need it. Don't answer calls you can't identify by caller ID. Don't open or read messages from people you don't want to hear from. Don't open mail from people you don't want contact with.

You are very much in control here. You can't control what others do, but you can control how you react. I suggest focusing on that to eliminate the problem. No attorneys required.
 

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