Harrassment Lawyers

Q: Is there a law against e-mail harrassment? Just wondering

A: There is a law against harassment. It seems to me that should cover e-mail harassment, telephone harassment, in-person harassment, harassment by mental telepathy (but you'd better be able to prove it exists!), harassment with hoardes of locusts, harassment with hoardes of lawyers, and harassment with Beethoven's 5th Symphony. However, just asking you to pay your bills within the limits of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is probably not harassment. There are laws against harassment in general which may apply to e-mail harassment, and there was a recent California court case in which it was ruled that sending one E-mail to a company employee at work was ruled (incorrectly, IMHO) harassment against the company. Cal Code of Civil Procedure section 527.6: (a) A person who has suffered harassment

as defined in subdivision (b) may seek a temporary restraining order and an injunction prohibiting harassment as provided in this section. (b) For the purposes of this section, "harassment" is unlawful violence, a credible threat of violence, or a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously alarms, annoys, or harasses the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose. The course of conduct must be such as would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, and must actually cause substantial emotional distress to the plaintiff. As used in this subdivision: