Our marriage is NC . My husband has been having an affair out of state for 18 months. Does it matter that the affair is not in nc for me to file suit against the affair partner? He said she has never been in NC .
Yes, an alienation of affections and criminal conversation action may be brought against someone that does not reside in a state that has these claims, if they have minimal contacts with North Carolina that bring them under our jurisdiction. For alienation of affection, involving oneself in a relationship with the married person in North Carolina (which may be meeting for a date, sending letters to North Carolina, etc.) constitutes minimum contacts. It usually very easy to establish minimum contacts in NC in such cases, however, in general A of A and CC are very expensive matters to litigate and the difficulty depends on the facts of the case. Best of luck.
Do emails and text count for out of State contact while the person is in nc?
NOT AN ATTORNEY
Yes they can be depending upon the nature of the emails/texts. There is case law for NC that you can look at to see how these have been handled and what actually has made it to the inside of a courtroom. However, as Crystal said, AA suits are expensive to prosecute, as well as time consuming and your own personal and sexual life may be dragged out in public in open court. You will be expected to put down a large retainer up front to pursue such a case. Although one often hears about the huge financial awards given in such matters, they are the minority, most cases are not brought full term into court. If the paramour you are suing basically has little to no money, then you are spending your own money just to have a judge declare that you were right. CC is a little easier to prosecute, but the financial awards usually aren’t as high.