Neighbor keeps taking North Carolina man to court claiming he’s trespassing, but shows a video of him doing yard work on his own property

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  via Suz Waldron

  Man mowing the lawn in a backyard beside a suburban home.

  ^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• Neighbor Repeatedly Taking My Dad to Court for Trespassing

  Own_Apricot_538

  Hi. Me and my dad live together in a house he’s resided in for over 40 years.

  We have a neighbor who has, in the last couple of years, suddenly began accusing my dad of trespassing on her property, among other things (all falsely, I might add).

• Her supposed proof is video footage taken from in front of her privacy fence of my dad being too close to the fence (he was doing yard work on the outside of her fence - her back yard buttresses up against our front yard).

• He has never stepped foot on her property, but she is taking him to court for a second time now alleging he is trespassing (the first case was dismissed due to lack of evidence).

• 
  via Suz Waldron

  Man mowing the lawn in a backyard beside a suburban home.

  ^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• I am not worried at all that my dad will be found guilty. Her evidence (if she has it) itself will prove he was never gone beyond her fence and actually stepped foot on her property. 

• My question is, how do we prevent her from continuing to do this? Is there some sort of legal recourse we can take to prevent her from going back to court and having charges drawn up on my dad on a different day?

• This has happened twice now and it is causing him undue stress, not to mention him having to miss work because he has to go to court. We have tried just ignoring her and staying as clear from the fence as possible (which sometimes is impossible), yet she still continues to make false allegations against my dad. What can we do?

  Own_Apricot_538

• 
  via irinacapel

  Older man raking leaves in a backyard garden.

  ^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}

• Forty years in a house earns you a certain expectation of peace. It doesn't guarantee it, obviously, because at any point a neighbor can decide that your presence near their privacy fence constitutes a pattern of criminal behavior worth documenting on video and presenting to a court. Twice. This is a thing that happens to people, and it is as exhausting as it sounds.

• The first lawsuit got dismissed for lack of evidence, which makes sense because the evidence was footage of a man doing yard work on his own side of a fence. That didn't stop a second lawsuit from happening. At some point the goal stops being about winning in court and starts being about the process itself. Litigation as harassment is a real strategy, and it works pretty well because courts are slow, appearances are mandatory, and stress is cumulative regardless of how confident you are in the outcome.

• Ignoring someone who is actively taking you to court is not really a viable long-term solution, and staying away from a shared fence line is only possible up to the point where you have a yard that needs maintaining. Eventually physics wins and you end up near the fence again, which apparently restarts the whole cycle.

• The legal concept worth knowing here is malicious prosecution. When someone repeatedly files claims they know to be false, causes measurable harm through the process of filing them, and loses because the claims have no merit, there's an argument that the filing itself becomes the actionable offense. Courts don't love being used as a personal harassment tool, and judges tend to notice patterns when the same situation keeps showing up with the same lack of evidence.

• Getting an attorney to send a letter outlining that exact argument, before a third filing happens, changes the dynamic considerably. It signals that the next move isn't just another dismissal, it's a counteraction. Most people who use the legal system as a nuisance tool are banking on the other side not having the energy to fight back. Removing that assumption tends to be clarifying for everyone involved.

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