Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: the case of the run-away bedframe

Sure you can sue them for the dent to your car. You do have proof, which is your testimony and that is enough to win. And, sure they can sue you for harassment, but they won't win. In California, anyone can sue for anything. Question is really, will the court allow them to proceed? Frankly, the kids sound like real jerks and I would question whether it is worth suing in Small Claims to get back, perhaps $500 in damages. No, do not tape record any conversation as that could well be a criminal violation under Penal Code 632. However, if it is on voicemail already, that is an exception.

Re: the case of the run-away bedframe

You could lose your suit against the neighbors if the judge does not believe your testimony (I presume this will be a small claims case, which means there will be no jury), but that is always a risk.

Even if you lose, the neighbors cannot successfully sue you for harassment based on the facts you have described. Lawsuits -- and pre-litigation efforts to resolve the underlying disputes -- are privileged and cannot support a harassment claim. No competent lawyer would bring such a case because doing so would be misconduct, so even if their father really is a lawyer there is little chance he will help them out.

They could theoretically sue you for malicious prosecution, but in order to win they would have to prove that you knew they were not responsible for your loss. Such claims are very hard to win, and they would be the ones with the burden of proof.

You definitely should preserve the messages on your voice mail. Secretly recording telephone calls is illegal, but a person talking to an answering system knows she is being recorded and thus cannot claim that you made the recording secretly.

I can't offer much guidance as to whether these people will actually harm you. If you think this is a substantial risk and if the damage to your car is modest, you might be better off just letting the whole matter go. Then again, if you don't actually sue they may sue you for the calls you made trying to get them to pay, since these calls are only privileged when made in contemplation of actually filing suit; the neighbors could argue that you never really planned to sue and were just trying to extort money from them. Such suits are also hard to win, but you would have to work much harder to defend against such a claim since it will be hard to prove that the litigation privilege applies.

Good luck.