QUESTION

Can I sue my father for emotional stress and somewhat physical abuse?

Asked on Dec 13th, 2015 on Personal Injury - Wisconsin
More details to this question:
Right now, I am 18. When I was young in elementary school, my dad was an alcoholic and would sometimes abuse me and my sisters. This one day, we were up north (a place he would always be during the weekend or when he has off) and my older sister got me mad so I chased her. When she was leaving the room, she pulled the door close and I ran into the skinny side of it. I started to cry and my dad came running up the stairs and saw I was crying and choked my sister. Another time around middle school, my younger sister was getting yelled at by him and she has kind of an attitude. He thought she was talking back to him and he choked her. Around that time, he also got mad at my mom and slapped her. The most recent thing he did to me was a few years ago. I was mad and I shut the door kind of hard because I was mad but also because it’s warped so you have to shut it harder than usual. He came running into my room and asked why I am slamming his doors. He then pushed me onto my bed and then I got up and I pushed him back. He fell back hitting his back on my doorknob then got up tackled me onto my bed starting hitting me. After a couple minutes of that, I got away but I fell onto my back on the floor and put out my foot so he wouldn’t start hitting me again. He thought I was trying to kick him and then he got on top of me and started hitting me again. At this moment, my mom and sisters are watching and my mom leaves crying and goes for a car ride. I try to go to a friend’s house. The whole time, he was hitting me. I was blocking everything so there wasn’t any marks on me. Not even my arms. Just maybe a little bruise and scratch. The social work just recommended that he takes anger management class. The only way he would go is if we went to an obedience class. Right now I still live with my parents but plan to move out when I graduate high school. He doesn’t hurt us anymore but is still a hot head and causes a lot of stress.
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1 ANSWER

It's obvious that your father has some kind of emotional problems or at least he did some years ago. And these affect everyone else in the household. However, you are talking about events which took place several years ago. There would be big problems with proof, and other legal issues (such as a parent's limited privilege to impose corporal punishment). But most to the point, these problems are not what the law and courts were made for. If it is at all possible, you (and your mother) should try to get the whole family into family counseling. This is quite apart from the Alternatives to Aggression (which may not exist any longer) or other such programs. In other words, to misquote from West Side Story: 'Dis family don't need a cop; it needs a social worker.'
Answered on Jan 04th, 2016 at 10:50 AM

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