Legal Question in Civil Litigation in North Carolina
My mothers boyfriend got mad at me and destroyed some of my valueable possessions, my mother took no legal action, I am 16 is there legally anything I can do to make him replace my thing?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You do have rights to your personal property. A parent has a limited right to deprive a child of property as a form of discipline, but generally speaking, if a minor's (i.e. under 18) property is destroyed or damaged by a third person, then the minor has a claim against that person. It would require the filing of a lawsuit to enforce those rights, which raises several practical problems (including whether the items destroyed are sufficiently valuable to justify a suit, and the inter-family problems this could cause). If the items were of significant value, you may want to consult with an attorney about this matter further.