Evidence You Can Use To Build Your Harassment Case

The best things you can do to help you prove your case starts as soon as matters begin, and that is by keeping a journal of events as time goes by. Dates, times, places, witnesses, events and emotions are all worth noting for later evidence when requesting a restraining or protection order and going to court.

When anything serious happens, go to the Police and file an official report to have it on record that you visited and reported. Their reports for smaller events will not be detailed, but the time and date will be and you will have an officer or two at least be familiar with you and the situation. That could be helpful to speed things up during following visits.

If anything happens elsewhere that has their own authorities, contact them with your concerns. In our case we had some issues at the local public school. We were in frequent contact with the principal and superintendent. It is their legal obligation to protect the children in their school. Things get sticky when the trouble is being caused by the parent of another student in that school. Expect help, demand help, it is their legal obligation, but understand the position they're in at the same time.

Don't expect anyone to take sides, they can't, but, present your case calmly, report activities factually and eventually, everybody will know what the real story is, even if they can't show it.

It's Not Always Harassment

As I have stated many times on this web site, not all annoying things are harassment, some things are just lame. It's not illegal to be an asshole, that is not a crime. We dealt with an asshole for a long time, it was when she committed a crime we were finally able to get some justice. Once the harasser breaks the law, then things can start snowballing in your favor, which is why it's worth keeping the journal I mentioned. Our journal is now several pages long, and once the assault happened, that journal could easily show the progression of aggression in our adversary.

Until a law is actually broken, don't bother filing for a restraining order or anything, it won't be worth it, once a law is broken, though, things change quickly.

People Do Not Want To Get Involved

It is worth noting that people on the whole do not want to get involved. Some will, some will not, don't push people it could backfire. It is worth asking but if they say no, respect it.

If you do have neighbors and/or witnesses that are willing to stand up for you and do have something of substance/importance to add to your case, have them write a letter of testimony only if they are willing to come in and testify, if they are not willing to testify, then their letter holds no real weight in negotiations since you really can't back it up.