[Jetset]

(05-26-2017 05:59 AM)mpr Wrote:  

Forget about suing your accusers. They don't have anything so it will be a waste of your time and money. Parent's are very rarely responsible for their minor children's torts, and not responsible at all if their child is 18 or older.

I agree with you 100%, but here, I would respectfully note that judgments in that state stand for 20 years. Suing an older person is often pointless since their retirement accounts are sheltered by federal law (there is a possible exception to this but it isn't relevant and would reveal OP's location, so I won't delve into it), but a new graduate is actively hunting for W-2 employment and will likely want to marry and start a family in the next 10-15 years. Those awkward conversations about wage garnishment and why they can't put their names on the starter home are going to be a pretty big incentive to get it paid ASAP.

Filing bankruptcy at 22 isn't going to speak well to future employers, either, and more than that, intentional tort judgments often cannot be discharged in bankruptcy anyway. Neither can student loans. I am not sure how the priorities work on that, but my assumption is that if he perfects his lien before the student loan companies sue, he gets paid first and the aftermath of this will follow the defendant for far longer than 20 years.

Another possible angle is that homeowners' or renters' insurance sometimes carries a personal injury clause that provides coverage for defamation. Mine does. In this case, my understanding is that an intentional tort would be excluded, but a negligent or reckless tort would get paid and bankruptcy would never come into play.

At the very least, if you're willing to spend money to pursue this, getting a judgment for an intentional tort against a new graduate is likely life-ruining for them, unless their degree was in Pre-Medieval Albanian Poetry and their life is already ruined anyway. Either way, there's a non-zero chance that Rich Dad will intervene with a checkbook to rescue their idiot offspring.

The flipside is that OP may just want to put all of this behind him. The temptation to judicially crush skulls and burn villages like it's a Robert E. Howard attempt at a courtroom drama would be overwhelming, though.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer in that state, but I have consulted with many lawyers in that state about collecting in a situation where these issues were in play.