Quite a few people do not know that, modern technology abuse can often be dealt with in both domestic court and criminal law court. The process and function for using each court of law is different and you may achieve different results depending upon which court of law you remain in. What are the standard differences in municipal and criminal court cases? In criminal court, the case is filed by the nation or local prosecutor and the purpose is to punish the abuser for breaking the law, which might result in jail time. In civil cases, the case is filed by you (the victim) or your attorney and the function is typically to have the abuser pay you for damages that his/her behavior caused you. In domestic cases, you are not asking the judge to send the abuser to jail for his/her behavior (even though the abuser’s habits may be a criminal activity in your state). In some scenarios, there might be both criminal and municipal cases taking place at the same time or close in time based upon the abusive behavior. In 2008, Erin Andrews, a commentator on ESPN, was stalked by a guy who recorded her in her hotel space through a peephole. A year later on, the stalker was convicted of stalking in criminal court and sentenced to over 2 years in jail. 5 years later on, Erin Andrews successfully sued the stalker (in addition to the hotel and others) in local court for resources damages based upon neglect, intrusion of privacy, and emotional distress. It may not always be clear what legal alternatives are offered to you and so it’s essential to seek advice from a lawyer who is educated about the laws surrounding technological innovation abuse.
One way to address the misuse of modern technology can be through the municipal court system. To submit a claim in civilian court, you can use a lawyer or file on your own. You (the victim) can sue for money damages for things like lost wages, loss of your task, psychological pain and suffering, damage to yours track record, and even punitive damages (to penalize the defendant). You might be able to file on your own in little claims court if your damages are listed below a particular quantity. In some regions, if you were the victim of the criminal activity of disclosure of intimate images, the law might allow you to sue the individual who utilizes the image or divulges for damages that increase each day the abuser remains in infraction of the law. You can discover more about the option of taking legal action against an abuser in domestic court by reading our Suing an Abuser for Resources post and picking your territory from the drop-down menu. You can also ask the court to issue an order (often called an injunction or a containing order) in which the judge orders the defendant to stop doing certain things (like sending out images of you to others) or to require him/her to do specific actions (such as ruining or turning over images). Containing orders might be a legal solution for victims experiencing various kinds of abuse including technology (and not just for nonconsensual image sharing cases) depending on your place’s legal meaning of domestic violence.
There also might be other important civil legal options to think about in technology-related abuse cases, specifically those that handle the sharing of images of you without your permission. One possible alternative, for instance, deals with turning over the copyright of images to you. Generally, copyright law might secure particular images or videos taken as an “original work,” and the person who takes a photograph or video is usually the copyright “owner.” The owner of the copyright can choose if, how, and when those images are distributed, released online, and so on. In a civic suit, it might be possible for you to request– and for a judge to order– that the defendant indication over any copyright ownership of the images to you (the victim). If you are the copyright owner, you would have the legal power to choose where the photos are released and you may be able to require that the pictures be removed from the Internet or other publications. For advice on whether or not you may have a valid legal claim to get the copyright of any images taken of you, please consult with an attorney who is well-informed about copyright law and technology misuse. There’s more details, for this topic, if you click on this hyperlink allfrequencyjammer ..!
Another method to deal with modern technology misuse is through the criminal court system. In the criminal law system, cases are filed by the region prosecutor (also called the district attorney or chief law officer in some states) based on offenses of territory criminal law. (Or if a federal law is violated, the federal district attorney would be the one to submit the case.) Normally, when you call 911 or go to the police department to file a criminal complaint, the police will do an investigation and if there is “possible cause” to make an arrest and sufficient proof to prosecute, the abuser may be charged with a crime. To see a list of some common criminal activities in your state, particularly those that involve modern technology abuse, go to our Crimes post and enter your jurisdiction in the drop-down menu.
One important difference between a civilian and criminal case is that in a criminal case, the district attorney is the one who decides whether to submit the criminal case against the abuser and whether or not to withdraw the criminal charges. As soon as a criminal case has actually been submitted, if you later decide that you do not want the case to continue (you want to “drop the charges”), the district attorney does not need to drop the case, considering that the prosecutor is not “your attorney. It depends on the district attorney whether to continue the case or not. You do not necessarily have the very same ability to dismiss a case or begin in criminal law court the way you may be able to in civilian court.
Nothing is more important than your safety and your wellness. If you are being abused or stalked by someone who is misusing technological innovations, it will be very important to analyze ways to increase your safety and personal privacy that take that technological innovations into factor to consider. Because technological innovations is continuously changing and the application of laws in this area are still establishing, there could be situations where the current law might not deal with precisely what is taking place. Nevertheless, the majority of acts of misusing technology for the purposes of harassment, stalking, and abuse are unlawful.
Even if you are unable to or choose not to look for defense, compensation, or other kinds of justice in criminal or civic court, you can still make a prepare for your security and get assist to deal with the emotional injury that you might experience. See our Safety Planning resource for additional information on methods to increase your security. You can call your local electronic cyber stalker company for additional aid developing a security plan or for other help and more practical resources offered to you about technological innovation criminal offenses and its misuse and increasing your personal privacy and safety on line.