Falsified CPS Reports

[Joe22369]

My girlfriend has recently finalized a nasty divorce in which she has a minor child with her Ex. He is very bitter about the results and has made every effort to disrupt our lives. During the latter part of the divorce proceedings he began calling Child Protective Services, falsely reporting abuse and neglect.

There have been 4 reports made thus far, 3 are closed with no action taken and the 4th has just been started. The 4th will be closed soon with the same results as before.The reports have alleged physical harm, refusal to feed child, exposing her to sexual acts between her mother and I, and forcing the child to clean her room at gunpoint. One would think that with such extreme accusations that one or two closed reports would be enough to stop him from "crying wolf" again. Yet, they continue because he reports different acts each time and CPS finds it necessary to investigate.

I am wondering what kind of legal rights I have to stop the harassment. I have been advised to file a report with local police, identifying these reports as being falsified. And that a police report now, would involve the police in the NEXT incident. I don't want to wait for another report. I would like to take it a step further and get some kind of legal action started against her ex.

I have no criminal record and the only CPS reports I have been involved in are the ones mentioned above. Since these reports have scarred my record with CPS I am hoping that a Defacement of Character lawsuit might hold some ground. I have no way to tally any financial toll that this has taken so I wouldn't think that damages could be recovered. I would enter this lawsuit primarily seeking punitive action by the State against her ex. The only damages I would hope to recover would be court and legal fees.

I need to know if this sounds feasible to a legal professional. I need to know, specifically, what type of law firm would be best to handle a case like this. With legal retainer fees being as high as they are, I would like to know my chances of success before I begin this process.


Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Joe

 

[mightymoose]

I don't think the police will be too interested unless they are the ones that received the original complaint that resulted in CPS coming out.

It seems the reports were quickly determined to be unfounded, as is very often the case. You do not have any particular damage as a result of their investigation- they are required by law to investigate even if they have been there multiple times before and found nothing wrong.

The CPS investigations should not have created any financial expense on your part.

Your best answers regarding your options might come from the social worker doing the investigation. It is not at all unusual for them to receive malicious false reports.

You should not waste your time with police or worrying about lawsuits. You have suffered no actual harm. It is very likely that the reports will stop on their own when the ex realizes that they are having no effect. By not responding to her with police and lawsuits you will likely have much better results- otherwise she will feel empowered as she sees she has a way of getting at you.

I say to simply ignore her. CPS will come and go as they always do and it should get faster every time.

 

[guestpost]

Florida CPS response

CPS does not always come and go.

False reports do not either.
CPS will pick up where the report left off ... Happens often

You are going to need a Child Dependency Attorney.

Best of Luck.