Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

My wife was paying child support to the father of her child before we were married. In 2005 he was convicted of attempting sexual acts on a child. His children were taken away from him. He was court ordered to for him to stop the child support, and we found out later he did not. Then my wife and I got married in 2007. In 2008 Child Support took $5,100 out of my tax return which he was not entitled to. He was told to give it back by his mother which we are friendly with, so he knew he was in the wrong, then went and bought a new car with it. My wife took him to court to have the child support stopped and was retro dated back to 2005. Was told I can sue him now. My question is, considering he knew he wasn't supposed to get my money and we almost lost our house because we couldn't pay our property tax(which that money was for), caused a lot of problems for our children due to me being layed off of employment, can I sue him for more than he took, for the damages caused by his ruthlessness?


Asked on 9/23/09, 2:31 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

If he acted in bad faith, you can ask for consequential damages and for your mental "costs", but 98% of the time, you will not get anything more than your money back with interest. These additional claims require a LOT of proof to get an award, it is not easy. If you had any costs for late fees, an attorney, interest and penalties on your taxes, they are consequential damages, and those you have a good shot at getting, if you can show that if you had the money you would not have had those additional costs. However, even if you had enough evidence to support claims for your "mental pain and suffering" , the cost to get it in at trial, will probably cost more of your and an attorney's time than you would get back. Life is not fair, and despite what the News tells you, the system does not allow claims for anything you want, and rarely result in anyone "hitting a jackpot". Then, even with an award, you have to collect from the bum, and that is an entirely different set of problems.

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Answered on 9/28/09, 4:19 pm


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