Family Court Intentional Infliction Emotional Distress

Miami-Dade County‘s Family Courthouse Report Legal Abuse Violations-Intentional Infliction Emotional Distress

What Is “Legal Abuse Syndrome”?

Whatever the court setting, whether it is regarding divorce, child custody, parental support, probate matters, personal injury, property disputes, legal or medical malpractice, criminal charges, or other deeply personal issues, the frauds put forth in our courts add greatly to the trauma.

When litigants are unable to get fair resolution to their issues, when the court dysfunction further adds to the litigant’s burden, when no amount of actual case law compels an equitable outcome, litigants suffer often disabling levels of stress. When further attempts to achieve redress fail, litigants display the hallmark signs of Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS). *The concept of Legal Abuse Syndrome was brought to the attention of this writer by investigative journalist Michael Volpe, who’s completing a book on the life and suicide of ones of its victims. The book’s pre-publication title is Bullied to Death: The Chris Mackney Story.

Dr. Huffer, incidentally, invites reports of cases like this one on her website’s Contact page..

It’s Constitutional – Discussing Constitution and Family Law Reform

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From iloveandneedmydaughter.blogspot.com – 

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law,natural law, religion, equity or fairness, as well as the administration of the law, taking into account the inalienable and inborn rights of all human beings and citizens,..

Prejudices & discrimination based on a person’s sex, social status, gender or race too often rule in U.S. courtrooms!

Parental alienation and domestic violence

Intentional infliction of emotional distress

Interest  —  Intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) is a tort claim of recent origin for intentional conduct that results in extreme emotional distress. Some courts and commentators have substituted mental for emotional, but the tort is the same. Some jurisdictions refer to IIED as the tort of outrage.

Rationale for classification

IIED was created in tort law to address a problem that would arise when applying the common law form ofassault. The common law tort of assault did not allow for liability when a threat of battery was not imminent. A common case would be a future threat of harm that would not constitute common law assault, but would nevertheless cause emotional harm to the recipient. IIED was created to guard against this kind of emotional abuse, thereby allowing a victim of emotional distress to receive compensation in situations where he or she would otherwise be barred from compensation under the common law form.

According to the first doctrine articulated by common-law courts, a plaintiff could not recover for physical injury from fright alone absent a physical impact from an external source (“shock without impact”), even if the fright was proven to have resulted from a defendant’s negligence, with the case on point referring to the negligent operation of a railroad. Even with intentional conduct, absent material damage, claims for emotional harm were similarly barred. “Mental pain or anxiety, the law cannot value, and does not pretend to redress, when the unlawful act causes that alone. Though where a material damage occurs, and is connected with it, it is impossible a jury, in estimating it, should altogether overlook the feelings of the party interested.” Courts had been reluctant to accept a tort for emotional harm for fear of opening a “wide door” to frivolous claims.

A change first occurred in the Irish courts which repudiated the English railroad decision. The idea that physical/mental shock without impact from an external source would be a bar to recovery was first questioned at the Queen’s Bench in Pugh v. London etc. Railroad Co. In the following year, the tort was first formally recognised in the case of Wilkinson v. Downton [1897] 2 QB 57, although it was referred to as “intentional infliction of mental shock”. Citing Pugh and the Irish courts as precedent, the Wilkinson court noted the willful nature of the act as a direct cause of the harm.

Elements

1. Defendant acted intentionally or recklessly; and
2. Defendant’s conduct was extreme and outrageous; and
3. Defendant’s act is the cause of the distress; and
4. Plaintiff suffers severe emotional distress as a result of defendant’s conduct.

Intentional or reckless act

It is not necessary that an act be intentionally offensive. A reckless disregard for the likelihood of causing emotional distress is sufficient. For example, if a defendant refused to inform a plaintiff of the whereabouts of the plaintiff’s child for several years, though that defendant knew where the child was the entire time, the defendant could be held liable for IIED even though the defendant had no intent to cause distress to the plaintiff.

Extreme and outrageous conduct

The conduct must be heinous and beyond the standards of civilized decency or utterly intolerable in a civilized society. Whether the conduct is illegal does not determine whether it meets this standard. IIED is also known as the tort of “outrage,” due to a classic formulation of the standard: the conduct must be such that it would cause a reasonable person to exclaim “Outrageous!” in response.

Some general factors that will persuade that the conduct was extreme and outrageous (1) there was a pattern of conduct, not just an isolated incident; (2) the plaintiff was vulnerable and the defendant knew it; (3) the defendant was in a position of power; (4) racial epithets were used; and (5) the defendant owed the plaintiff a fiduciary duty.

Causation

The actions of the defendant must have actually caused the plaintiff’s emotional distress beyond the bounds of decency. IIED can be done through speech or action; if emotional stress, must manifest physically.

Qualification

The emotional distress suffered by the plaintiffs must be “severe.” This standard is quantified by the intensity, duration, and any physical manifestations of the distress. A lack of productivity or a mental disorder, documented by a mental health professional, is typically required here, although acquaintances’ testimony about a change in behavior could be persuasive. Extreme sadness, anxiety, or anger in conjunction with a personal injury (though not necessarily) may also qualify for compensation.

An example of an act which might form the basis for a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress would be sending a letter to an individual falsely informing the person that a close family member had been killed in an accident.

Pleading practices

In civil procedure systems (such as in the United States) that allow plaintiffs to plead multiple alternative theories that may overlap or even contradict each other, a plaintiff will usually bring an action for both intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED). This is just in case the plaintiff later discovers that it is impossible to prove at trial the necessary mens rea of intent; even then, the jury may still be able to rule for them on the NIED claim.

There are some reported cases in which a plaintiff will bring only a NIED claim even though a reasonable neutral observer could conclude that the defendant’s behavior was probably intentional. This is usually because the defendant may have some kind of insurance coverage (like homeowners’ insurance or automobile liability insurance). As a matter of public policy, insurers are barred from covering intentional torts like IIED, but may be liable for NIED committed by their policyholders, and therefore are targeted indirectly in this fashion as deep pockets.

First Amendment considerations

The U.S. Supreme Court case Hustler v. Falwell involved an IIED claim brought by the evangelist Jerry Falwellagainst the publisher of Hustler Magazine for a parody ad that described Falwell as having lost his virginity to his mother in an outhouse. The Court ruled that the First Amendment protected such parodies of public figures from civil liability.

See also

• Snyder v. Phelps

References

1. ^ LeRoy Miller, Roger (2011). Business Law Today: The Essentials. United States: South-Western Cengage Learning. p. 103. ISBN 1-133-19135-5.
2. ^ Cusimano, Gregory S. “Tort of Outrage”. LexisNexis. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
3. ^ For English law, see Victorian Railways Commissioners v. Coultas (1888) 13 AC 222 (woman barred from recovery due to shock despite suffering a miscarriage); for a similar decision in New York in the same month, see Lehman v. Brooklyn City Railroad Co., 47 Hun (N.Y.) 355 (1888).
4. ^ Lord Wensleydale, Lynch v. Knight (1861) 9 HLC 577 at 598; 11 ER 854, where a married woman unsuccessful sought redress for “slanderous imputation of unchastity”
5. ^ Mitchell v. Rochester Railway Co. 151 NY 107 (1896)
6. ^ see Bell v. Great Northern Railway of Ireland (1895) 26 LR (Ir) 428; also citing an unreported decision inByrne v. Great Southern and Western R. Co. of Ireland
7. ^ [1896] 2 QB 248
8. ^ http://trucounsel.com/index.php/intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress
9. ^ Taylor v. Metzger, 706 A.2d 685 (N.J. 1998).
10. ^ GTE Southwest, Inc. v. Bruce, 998 S.W.2d 605 (Tex. 1999).
11. ^ “Emotional Distress and Defamation in Personal Injury Cases”. Slappey & Sadd. Retrieved 26 July2015.
12. ^ Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988). 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Wikipedia

Reform Family Law ~ Stop Hurting Parents and Children
World4Justice : Cyber Protest!

Put Family Justice and Child Welfare Reform at the top of Politicians Agenda!

False Accusation Law & Legal Definition

From definitions.uslegal.com –

An accusation that is contrary to fact or truth is a false accusation. To accuse means to make a charge of wrongdoing against another. Accusation can be a formal charge of criminal wrong doing, like the accusation that is presented to a court or magistrate having jurisdiction to inquire into the alleged crime. It can also be an informal statement that a person has engaged in an illegal or immoral act.

The BEST parent is BOTH parents!!

Parents must stop making false allegations of domestic violence to derail and gain an unfair advantage in Family Court!

https://youtu.be/h2xlYCOyzEI?list=PL8JCdJuX7R3tFphCy_Af6E2NA9v6AROL0

“The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their child is a fundamental right.”

Support the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children.

Add 28th Parental Rights Amendment to U.S. Constitution

Dedicated to the proposition that children are best served by having unfettered EQUAL access to BOTH parents.

Father’s Rights In Child Custody & Support Agrrement

From http://www.michigandivorcelawyerfordad.com – November 4, 10:41 PM

Longton DM works to preserve the relationship between a father and his children. Child custody and parenting times are all factors we take very seriously when negotiating your rights during a divorce. Our Michigan child custody lawyer will aggressively seek fair and impartial judgments on child custody and support arrangements.

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TALKING BACK to restraining orders

This is the first post on this blog to introduce Legal Abuse Syndrome (LAS), a condition proposed by marriage and family therapist Karin P. Huffer, whose books on the subject of posttraumatic stress stemming from court-mediated violations are Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome(1995) and Legal Abuse Syndrome: 8 Steps for Avoiding the Traumatic Stress Caused by the Justice System(2013).

“Anyone who has ever worked in a legal aid office or law library has met people whose lives have come unhinged after a bad contact with the legal system. The details vary—they may have lost a business or inheritance or the custody of a child—but the common theme of feeling violated by the legal system does not. Even 20 years after losing a lawsuit, some people who suffer from Legal Abuse Syndrome still carry a suitcase of old legal papers around, desperately hoping someone will help…

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