Lawsuit Harrassment Via Small Claims
My question involves restraining orders in the State of: Oregon
My son is filing lawsuit after lawsuit against me in small claims court.
He is mentally ill and violent.
I have a restraining order against him so instead of threating me outright, he calls my lawyer and threatens him saying he is going to have him disbarred and that he will not stop until he gets what he want from me.
This can cost me thousands of dollars in lawyers fees and there appears to be no end. Every time I call my lawyer he adds $200 to the bill.
Can anyone give me any advice on how I can stop all this craziness?
He does not have to pay any filing fees for these as he qualifies for waivers. He is doing it all by himself, no lawyer, so this costs him absolutely nothing and there is no reason for him to stop at this time. He keeps getting away with things over and over.
I just don't know what to do at this point and am running out of money fast. If anyone has any advice as to what I can do I would really appreciate it.
Re: Lawsuit Harrassment Via Small Claims
There's really nothing you can do to prevent him from filing lawsuits although you CAN request that he's sanctioned if he's filing frivolously.
Perhaps the bigger question though is what is he actually suing for?
Re: Lawsuit Harrassment Via Small Claims
He is suing for "neglect of a working farm animal". He abandoned his animals on my farm for 3 months when we went on "vacation" and left without enough food to feed them. He is also claiming he owns everything including my property which he has never paid rent or anything else to me.
He sent a letter claiming he "worked" for me at $54 an hour for 2 years and that I owe him $702,000 for time worked and feed for the animals.
These lawsuits are completely frivolous and have no basis whatsoever. How would we go about requesting having him sanctioned?
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Is there any chance we could file an "abuse of process" suit against him or "malicious prosecution"? He is just doing this to be vengeful. The lawyer has many voicemails saved of him threatening.
Re: Lawsuit Harrassment Via Small Claims
When you asked your lawyer whether the judge who issued your restraining order might amend the order to include the filing of lawsuits without prior clearance from the court, what did your lawyer think of the idea?
Rep. Jim Thompson has been pushing legislation to try to restrict pro se filings by vexatious litigants. That won't help you unless a bill actually passes, but his office may be interested in your story.
Re: Lawsuit Harrassment Via Small Claims
We will definitely ask our lawyer about amending the restraining order to include this. I would think that would have been something he would have suggested since he is charging us so much money. Thanks for the tip.
I will get in touch with Rep Jim Thompson's office about this. It is a horrible situation to be in so we would like to do what we can to keep anyone else from getting into this situation.
Re: Lawsuit Harrassment Via Small Claims
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Quoting
fyremaster
He is suing for "neglect of a working farm animal". He abandoned his animals on my farm for 3 months when we went on "vacation" and left without enough food to feed them. He is also claiming he owns everything including my property which he has never paid rent or anything else to me.
He sent a letter claiming he "worked" for me at $54 an hour for 2 years and that I owe him $702,000 for time worked and feed for the animals.
These lawsuits are completely frivolous and have no basis whatsoever. How would we go about requesting having him sanctioned?
- - - Updated - - -
Is there any chance we could file an "abuse of process" suit against him or "malicious prosecution"? He is just doing this to be vengeful. The lawyer has many voicemails saved of him threatening.
Have you considered firing your attorney and representing yourself in small claims court instead of using an attorney? That would certainly save money.
Re: Lawsuit Harrassment Via Small Claims
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Quoting
llworking
Have you considered firing your attorney and representing yourself in small claims court instead of using an attorney? That would certainly save money.
An attorney cannot be present in small claims court in Oregon. The attorney can advise, of course, but cannot be present with the plaintiff.
http://www.osbar.org/public/legalinf...mallclaims.htm
Re: Lawsuit Harrassment Via Small Claims
He advised us and charged us for advising which I can understand to a point. Of course the advice was to move it to a jury trial so he could represent us and then charge even more.
In this case, he let it go to a default judgment because he sent the response in for us instead of us sending it in and had to file a motion to set aside and vacate the judgment which irritated us all as he should have advised us on what to do instead of doing it for us and it being rejected by the court because it came from a lawyer.
We are trying to figure out what to do as it is taking a lot of time and effort and missed days from work.