Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Georgia
In March 2011, I was extremely irritated at the way my my uncle's funeral was arranged. My sisters and I were he only blood nieces, no nephews. The nieces of his wife (who had passed away in March of 2010, took over the whole thing. They would not let us near him with them being around them. We had always been extremely close to him until the death of his wife, that is where her nieces came in. We, his real nieces, we not allowed to be involved in any part of his life from that point forward. His funeral was horrible, we had nothing to do the arrangements and were not allowed to speak at his funeral, needless to say we were crushed. Before he passed away, on of my aunt's nieces took him to her lawyer and had his will written. He was 90 years old at the time. Needless to say she came out very well in the will, and named herself as Executrix. My two sisters and I were left $500.00 each and she stands to receive more than $100,000. I really got peeved, not at the will, but about the funeral and the way that my sisters and I were treated so I wrote her a letter. I indicated how I felt about her and the funeral, no name calling or cursing. I copied that letter to her pastor and to the pastor that presided over my uncle's funeral. The copy of the letter to the presiding pastor was returned to me marked "no such address". That was in April 2011. I received a letter in November 2011 from the attorney which is handling my uncle's estate stating that this woman thought about suing me for defamation, but was not going to at this time, but that option remained open to her. I had a reason to contact the attorney recently and in his response to me he stated that I was continuing to defame his client. This is untrue. I haven't written anything else since the April 2011 letter nor have I spoken to anyone about her. The only person I have talked to is my cousin and that was just a general conversation which included family members, and answering some questions she had about items in the will. Since this woman is the Executrix, her name did come up, but only in the sense of Executrix. I haven't spoken with my cousin in several months. Can this Executrix sue me for defamation? If someone tells her that I said something, when in actuality I did not, can they take me to court over, what I would call untrue "hearsay"? I am a little concerned.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Your question is outside the scope of this website. Your best course of action is to employ an attorney to review the available information and provide guidance. Avoid discussing the matter with anyone until you have done that.
FYI, there is a one year statute of limitations for slander. Based upon the facts presented, there could be a viable claim against you if filed before March 2012 based upon the letter. Similarly there could be a claim based upon the alleged statements, if filed within a year the statements were made.
Your question certainly highlighted a general problem with claims based upon oral statements... Simply put, they are difficult to prove if there is no witness to the conversation. Nevertheless, as our society becomes increasingly proficient with the use of technology, the problem of recording useful statements will decrease.
I suggest you contact legal assistance to obtain a case evaluation. At that point you can divulge greater detail about your circumstances and you can receive case specific advice. If you continue to have legal questions, feel free to visit our website at:
www.rousecolaw.com
best of luck to you and your family.
Regards,
If you get sued, obviously you need a lawyer at the time. If you have a legal issue with the estate, you can retain a lawyer to handle that (a lawyer who primarily handles estate matters). Otherwise, the be blunt, the tone of your long detailed post and sending copies of letters to people who are really not (or should not) be involved in the personal spat, would indicate that you probably need to move on with your life and get over this issue of not being happy with the funeral. No one here knows the whole story or what you have said or written about the other people, so no one here can tell you whether you will get sued or whether they have a valid claim. Sure you can obviously find many lawyers happy to go over all of this for an evaluation, and charge you for a couple hours of fees, but that presumes you want to continue down this road of turning a personal issue into a legal problem. You don't have a legal battle at this point and moving on from these personal issues will likely avoid on in the future, and would be good for all parties involved.
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