Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Georgia

Before you go off filing a lawsuit, you need to figure out a few things. First, I assume you are in Georgia and the other person is not. Since the other person is not in Georgia, he or she can only be sued in Georgia if certain criteria are met. If there is no connection between what the person did and Georgia, then you cannot sue in Georgia.

Even if you can sue in Georgia, you have to decide whether you should do so. While it is easier to sue and get a judgment, if the person owns no property in Georgia, the judgment does you no good because you cannot collect on the Georgia judgment unless you transfer it to a state where the person lives or owns property. And then it must be properly registered in that state before it can be enforced. You will need a lawyer for that in the state where you are trying to get the Georgia judgment registered.

My point is that even if suit can be brought in Georgia it just might be more cost effective to sue the person where he or she lives to avoid the hassle of arguing about jurisdiction or trying to transfer a Georgia judgment.

When did the defamation and harassment occur? There are much shorter time limits for defamation (like 1 year). If it is longer than the period, then such claims may be barred.

The next hurdle you have to overcome is whether the statements are defamatory. Not all statements are defamatory on their face. Some are only defamatory by innuendo. And truth is always a defense no matter how ugly the statements are. Slander is oral and libel is written. Each state has their own defamation laws and I do not know what the person said or wrote to know if the statements were defamatory. The defamation also cannot be privileged (example, statements made in court) and has to be uttered (if spoken) or sent (if written) to third-parties, not you.

There also is the issue of damages. Some types of defamation carry their own damages automatically. Some types of defamation require you to prove exactly how you were harmed.

Finally, litigation is horrendously expensive and time-consuming. The rule regarding attorney's fees is that each party pays their own legal fees unless some rule or statute allows fees to be recovered. And even if attorney's fees are allowed, you only get these at the end of the case, which might be several years down the road. And defamation cases are not contingency fee cases like auto accidents or medical malpractice where recovery is practically a certainty and an insurer is representing the defendant. So the question will be, do you have the money to pay a lawyer and keep the lawsuit going? Is the money that you spend going to be outweighed by any recovery?

Whether you sue and where you sue will depend on the answers to these questions.

Regarding your claims of harassment, I don't know what this is really in the civil context. I would need to know the behavior that constitutes "harassment" as it might fall within some other tort in order to be actionable. This may be a criminal offense however and if that is the case, then you need to talk to the magistrate to see if criminal charges can be filed.

I suggest that you sit down with a Georgia civil attorney in your area who handles defamation cases. Pay him or her for 30-60 minutes of his/her time. You need to tell the attorney about what was said or written and when it was done. If it is actionable, you will need to ask the attorney if you can sue the person in Georgia and you need to see what kind of assets or money the person has to know if it will be worthwhile.

If not, then maybe the lawyer can just write a nasty letter to the person to get them to stop making defamatory statements and retract what has already been said or written.