My grand children have been adopted and we have letter box contact twice a year our latest letter from the adoptive parents has included in it that my wife and I neglected and were abusive to them which is untrue and can be proved I would like to know how I would go about suing them for defamation of character and slander and also if we could get legal aid to help us the letter sent to ua has been read by contact centre that forwards letters to us thank you for your help

The only way to know if Legal Aid will help with this sort of problem in your area is to call them and ask.

It's not defamation if you are the only people who got the info.

How have you been damaged by the allegation? They made it to you. A defense to defamation or libel is truth. You said that you can prove the statements were false, can you prove that they knew that they were false? Were any allegations ever made against you? Did the children say anything or repeat something to their parents that they may have heard? Long story short, to collect of a defamation claim, you would have to prove that you have been damaged by then deliberately spreading a falsehood. You can certainly try to sue them but from what you have described, you would not be successful.

Let me get this straight. Your child (son or daughter) gave up (or had the children taken) for adoption. You had an arrangement whereby you can send and receive two letters per year to a PO Box about the grandchildren. In the latest letter the adoptive parents stated that you were abusive to your grandchildren.

This really makes little sense. Why would they say something like that? I'm assuming the purpose of this was to keep track of how your grandchildren were growing. So it makes no sense that they would attack you in such a letter.

But, since this wasn't a public communication, I don't see any grounds for a suit.

. You can certainly try to sue them but from what you have described, you would not be successful.


As a matter of law while you can pretty much sue anybody for anything, no responsible Attorney would take this case. There's no grounds for the lawsuit.

"X just said mean things ABOUT me TO me" is not grounds for a lawsuit.

Address the legal aid issue, no I doubt they would take a case like this.
1. they are over worked, most don't even do much except divorce cases and many of them just file the paper work, they do not appear.
2. there is no real grounds for the case, no harm
3. the people who read ( if they do read) have a strict level and can not tell info they see.

Why not merely tell them you are sorry they got such a misunderstanding and that this was not the case what so ever. When you speak to them again.