Divorce: should I settle or go to court?

[Gigi]

My husband I are divorcing. during nearly the entire time we were together, even before being married, I had numerous affairs and was involved in the "swingers lifestyle". The problem is I had many pictures of me taken to capture the moment, and there are many of me with two or more men having sex. My husband found these pictures, and he discovered the swinger website I was on, and made copies of that too. I have since deleted the website, but I dont think he is lying if he found about it...I didnt tell him.

My main concern is, my family has a very high profile business, and I am the future heir and current co-owner, and my husband has said he will go public with this information if I dont settle out of court with him. I know Oregon is a no fault state, but if I dont settle out of court, does he have the right to make this information public, even though it was on a website I paid for?

Also, can I sure him for slander, liabel, defamation, or other criminal things like that? I am seriously scared this could ruin my entire family and our business.

 

[NYClex]

This is very tricky. It is not defamation, libel or slander, if he publishes true facts about you. Defamation etc. is the publication of false facts.

But, if he publishes all that about you with the intention to hurt you, it still is very likely illegal. it might be intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy or another tort. It also might be criminal extortion.

You should discuss this problem with your lawyer and think about the question of settlement/non-settlement independently of this.

You need to be aware of the fact, though, that even if it is illegal to publish that stuff about you, it might be hard to prove that he did it, and therefore the fact that you might sue him might not work to scare him off. You know him better than anyone else if he would do that or not.