Q: My fiancé’s ex has started a social media page to tell her story of surviving his abuse and is stating untrue info.
She has stated he has narcissistic personality disorder (he has not been diagnosed) and that he was abusive mentally and physically during their relationship. She has stated things about myself as the “mistress,” like I have been stalking her and plotted to steal the house from her. No plot ever existed and checking public accounts on social media to stay abreast of the nonsense being put online about my life I do not believe is stalking. She has not stated our names, but she has posted an item that had my fiancé’s last name and phone number where someone could pause the video and get the information easily. There are over 90 videos and she states she has voice recordings of myself she stole from my finance and personal text messages between him and I that she took out of his phone. I did not consent to her possessing any of my information. Has she broken any laws with these actions and the public smear campaign? What can we do? This is all during a pending court case over real estate.
A: If the information she has published is false and defamatory and other people have believed what she posted and taken adverse action against you and your fiance such as firing, demoting, declining credit, refusing to do business with, etc., you can potentially sue her for any actual compensatory damages you have suffered. The statute of limitations is one year. You will want to hire an attorney with experience in defamation law as there are special statutes that concern defamation because a lot of "speech" is protected by our state and federal constitutions and suing someone for protected speech can result in you having to pay their attorney fees if you cannot prevail on a defamation claim.
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