Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Indiana

Re: Defamation of character

If you falsely informed people that someone has a criminal record, it's slander, for which you can be sued. The size of the judgment would depend on the amount of money by which a jury thinks the person was damaged. Which could be high enough to threaten your home or other assets by way of a judgment lien and subsequent levy. If this slander really happened, you could mitigate your damages - reduce the amount a court or jury would consider fair - by eating crow, apologizing, going around to the people to whom you made the false assertions and withdrawing them. Sometimes juries in slander cases agree a person has been slandered, but award only nominal damages, like one dollar. I suggest you see what you can do by way of conflict resolution with this family member. See if someone else, another family member or pastor, can help. Good luck.