Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
My boyfriend has been going through an ugly divorce for three years now. The ex will not agree to anything and has been very spiteful and manipulative through the whole process. There is a 7 year old child involved and has been put through so much heartache because of his mother. The child loves me very much and I think I have been a safe haven for her for the last year. Her mother is jealous of this and makes up lies about me. It has always been annoying but she has recently wrote UNTRUE and malicious things about me in legal documents between her lawyer and my boyfriend's. Her statements are on legal documents that are public record and they directly discredit my good name within the field of work I am in. Although she has not taken it any further than that, I have been advised by friends and family that I should file an injunction to get her to stop with defaming my good name. I don't know whether to file in small claims court or to consult a lawyer. Does anyone have any advise? I have no idea where to begin but I know that this cannot continue.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Do not get your legal advice from friends and family. Nothing she says in court, or in court papers, or to the police, is legally actionable. Wait for her to slip and repeat her lies to a third party in a non-court-related context and then pounce.
Small claims courts cannot issue injunctions. Also, things said in the course of legal proceedings are not actionable as libel or slander. If stated under oath, things that are knowingly false may be perjury, but you don't have standing to sue for that.
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