Atlanta, GA asked in Family Law, Child Custody and Civil Rights for Florida

Q: Reaching out to seek help regarding the termination of parental right of my daughter that happened in 2018.

Reaching out to seek help regarding the termination of parental right of my daughter that happened in 2018 due to a medical malpractice that could be proven but because it’s past the statues of limitation couldn’t proceed to sue the hospital however I am in pursuit of trying to seek legal justice against dcf because of lies that were made against me and the father pertaining to aggravated child abuse that was never proven and the changing documents that shows that lies were made and our parental rights were illegally terminated. Our daughters father and I were put on child support even though our parental rights were terminated we were court ordered through my sister who took custody and also testified against me to put us on child support. She had a change of heart and decided to take us off of it and when we went to court they went over why our rights were terminated and they said it was due to domestic abuse between the two of us in the home but that’s not true.

1 Lawyer Answer

A: Sorry to hear about your crisis. It is probable that the only way you would have any potential claim regarding wrongful acts by DCF employees is if the court adjudication that was adverse to you is vacated. You're basically saying you were maliciously prosecuted. (That term applies to any kind of court case, not just criminal prosecutions). Fla. law does not permit suing for malicious prosecution unless the decision adverse to you is changed to a decision that is not adverse to you - for example, by the trial court vacating the decision based on new evidence or a mistake, or by an appellate court reversing the trial court. Once you do have the adverse decision tossed out the window, the issue then become whether there is sufficient evidence to support a malicious prosecution action, as you don't automatically have a valid case. The validity and worthwhileness of the potential case would depend on a number of factors. In the event that the parental termination case was primarily based on lies told by your sister, there probably would be no potential case against anyone other than your sister.

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