Scornful Revenge

Chapter Nineteen

The following day, Tom, George and Alice went to meet with the lawyer Esther recommended to them. Since it was earlier in the day, Jamie volunteered to watch Emma and pick Daniel up from school. After a few minutes of sitting in the waiting room, the lawyer approached them and shook their hands.

"Good morning. I'm Hank Grossman."

"Thank you for meeting with us. Our friend, Esther, recommended you." Alice spoke.

"Esther! Lovely woman. Yes, she did say you would reach out. Well, follow me to my office."

Inside his office, they discussed the issue and who was involved. They told them they had met with another lawyer who suggested they could counter-sue. Hank looked over their documents for a moment before looking back up at them.

"Why did they suggest to counter-sue?"

"To be quite frank, our parents had abused us since childhood," George answered. "And my father beat my sister to the point of hospitalization when they kicked her out."

"She said we could counter-sue for intentional infliction of emotional distress... whatever that means." Alice added.

"Well, I will admit now that they have good enough evidence to support their NIED case against you. If you wish to sue for intentional infliction, you have to be one hundred percent sure that your case has the elements of their act being the cause of any distress you experienced or still experience, their conduct had been extreme and or outrageous, they acted intentionally, and you suffer severe emotional distress due to their actions. The last element is a bit tricky as you will need a medical professional to reveal documents that either one of you have experienced any physical manifestations of distress, but any friend of yours who knows of your ordeal can testify about changes in your behavior." Hank explained to all three of them.

"Um... I'm not sure if we have anything that could document it as 'severe.'" George chuckled nervously.

"I do... actually." Alice added.

"What is it?" Hank inquired.

"Esther has kept a few on her phone in case they came in handy, but the doctors at the hospital I was at after my dad had beaten me... they called the cops and they took their own photos. The doctors knew I had been assaulted and they wanted me to name who did it but... I never could bring myself to say it."

Alice inhaled sharply, holding back her tears. She placed her hands on the armrests of her chair and Tom reached out for her, only to find he had been a second too late. She had placed it on top of George's as he squeezed her left hand.

"Now, we don't have to go into any specifics of what has happened to the both of you today. That can be dealt at a later time. However, I think you've got a pretty solid case in my opinion. It's been twelve years since they have had any contact with you. It doesn't make sense to come after the both of you. Now, I will admit that Esther did talk to me about you guys and knowing your situation, I would be pleased to take on your case pro-bono."

"Thank you! That means so much to us." Alice gasped.

"Of course. And Esther is a very good friend of mine," Hank grinned. "Now, if you do wish to counter-sue, you'll have to go to your Clerk of Courts office and fill out a compulsory counterclaim. Now, it has to be compulsory because you are counter-suing them for a very similar offense. You'll submit it with your answer that you'll write in these documents. The answer and counterclaim are two different things and you'll probably have to pay a small fee. And make sure you receive two copies of everything. One will be for me and the other will have to be sent to your parents' lawyer."