CIVIL CASES: Do Your Own Heavy Lifting

You providing depth of evidence to your civil attorney will make less work for them (and therefore, fewer billable hours as well).  As in criminal cases, providing a detailed chronicle, with supporting cross-referenced evidence will help courses of action immensely.  Keep both originals and duplicates / backups of all physical evidence supporting your case. And, in the case of electronic evidence -  multiple types of copies can also be helpful (i.e. screen shots, web archives, PDF exports, and third party stored copies, etc. of the exact same information).  This can help show a judge or jury you didn’t just photoshop some random evidence, and will help somewhat in proving that your claims are indeed substantiated.

Like criminal cases, Cross-referencing your information with a more concise calendar of events is vital.  Check out our earlier post - CRIMINAL CASES: Do Your Own Heavy Lifting for more information.  You won't necessarily be following the suggestions listed to help law enforcement, but to make it easier on your own attorney to help them understand your plight quicker, spend less time comprehending and compiling, and more time determining the best course of action for your specific case.

Civil suits are tricky, and highly subjective by both judge and jury should you decide to go to court. Using all resources available (reporting to appropriate law enforcement, mediation with contractual obligation, a savvy attorney, etc.) will help should you feel justified in pursuing this line.  Remember, you really shouldn't be out for vengeance.  The most realistic expectation is only to be allowed to live your own life without fear, stress and further hardship from the perpetrator.  The court system will view a request to simply be protected enough to pursue a normal life in a much more favorable light than going in with a "make them pay!" attitude.  If you are looking to get fairly compensated for your suffering, that's not a realistic view in today's courts - no matter how much you've had to spend protecting yourself or have otherwise lost at their hands.

However unsatisfying, there are methods you can employ.  For example, you may be able to get the offender to readily agree via contract to your demands to be left alone.  Consider this unorthodox situation: Pressing the compensation issue coupled with the contractual demands to leave your life entirely (and after an appropriate amount of "negotiations" of course) only to finally agree to just the contract may get you at least some degree of agreed upon and binding protection.  Since historically the primary reason anyone is taken to civil court is based on money, the person you are suing will most likely focus on that aspect and believe themselves lucky to only have to agree to leave you alone through a legally binding contract.  Breach of contract is easier to prove than subjective view of harassment or stalking, and most people will think twice before violating the agreement after signing on the dotted line in front of attorneys and mediators.  This assumes some degree of desire for self preservation on the part of the offender however - so it is definitely not applicable in all situations. Going through the motions will help a criminal case as well.  Doing everything you can do yourself helps motivate prosecutors should your efforts fail, and may have some degree of sway with courts.

This example may not be what you consider fair, but it's the type of environment we have to work within.  The good news is the federal and state governments are taking steps to help protect victims of on-line harassment and stalking.  But, they are doing so at the normal pace of government.  At least there are few lobbyists advocating stalker-specific rights.

The point of the above example really is to get creative and try and think of coupling the more orthodox methods with novel approaches - just don't stoop to their level.  Defend your right to quality of life, but don't shoot yourself in the foot by mirroring their demented acts.  The harassers and stalkers of the world are gaming the system to torment you - there's nothing wrong with thinking outside the box (but within the law) to get yourself back to some sense of a normal life.  No silver bullets in the civil-side of this game.  Apologies, but in these types of cases, lycanthropes are probably easier to dispatch.