fedorable1 said:
can someone sue on behalf of someone else? For example, if Frank beats up Bob's sister, but the sister won't or can't destify, can Bob still sue/have Frank arrested? Or, in the case of my book, can parents have a man arrested/sued for having relations with their (17, legally-underage) daughter? The daughter said she doesn't want to press charges, but can the parents do it anyway since she's not an adult yet?
First off, as someone else aptly pointed out, the parents don't "bring charges," the DA (District Attorney, or whatever they call it in your area) does. Criminal charges are brought by the government (the DA). All the parents could do is (1) sue (file a civil case) or (2) report the guy to the cops in hopes of getting him arrested and getting the DA to bring charges. As for Bob in your other example, he could call the cops and tell them about anything he witnessed or overheard, and they should at least come out and talk to Bob's sister and Frank to see what happened, but Bob can't sue or bring charges (unless Bob's the DA!).
As for suing on someone else's behalf, to my knowledge (but I'm not out of law school yet), there is no way to sue on behalf of someone else unless that person has no say in the matter (i.e. is a minor and you're their parent, or lacks legal capacity [severe mental illness etc.] and you're their representative). Even if the person
wants to sue, is of age and has legal capacity, you can't sue because THEY have to sue, not you. And if they
don't want to sue, you can't sue because, basically, it's none of your business. The issue is called "standing": you can't bring suit unless you have standing to do so, and you only have standing for wrongs that are done to you or to someone you represent (like your child). (When you hear about, for example, a woman suing a car company because her husband was injured in an accident, she's not suing for the injuries to him, she's suing for the consequences of the accident on her: for example, financial losses from taking time off work to help him, "loss of consortium" i.e. her loss of sex and company, and maybe, in really extreme cases, something like intentional infliction of emotional distress on her. She can sue for what the accident did to her; he, if he's alive and mentally intact, has to be the one to sue for what it did to him.)
So for your book, the parents could possibly sue on behalf of their daughter because she's a minor, but there's really no point, because the problem is the guy HAD actual consent--there was nothing resembling rape here, none of his touching was against the girl's will--so you're going to have a tough time convincing a jury to find in your favor. Depending on how your daughter acts at trial, the jury could just as easily find that you're meddling parents who can't control your daughter. That's not legally significant, but it's still going to matter to a jury: if they don't like you and no overwhelmingly obvious wrong was done, you're going to lose the lawsuit. Big waste of money for nothing.
But the parents could report the guy to the cops, at which point he'd probably be arrested if they had evidence. But if the daughter's not cooperating, it's going to be harder to get evidence; technically she can be forced to testify, but it's a fact of human nature that no one can force someone to tell the truth if they don't want to. If she lies on the stand and gets caught, you (the parents) may just end up getting your daughter slapped with perjury charges. If she loves or really likes the guy and she understands the legal consequences of underage sex--namely, that her boyfriend might (depending on the state) be declared a sexual predator, forced to register with the police whenever he moves, have a felony record, etc.--she's NEVER going to cooperate and she's going to hate her parents for trying to get her boyfriend in such deep trouble.
So to sum up, it's possible for parents to report the guy to the cops, who would take it to the DA, who would (if there was sufficient evidence) charge the guy with a felony, but in practical terms it's very difficult unless it actually was rape (i.e. forced sex, so the girl wants him punished). Statutory rape (i.e. underage sex) charges are sometimes brought in "he said/she said" cases where it actually was rape but there's no evidence other than he said/she said, that is, where the guy says "sure, we had sex, but she consented" and she says "no, I didn't!" In those cases, the DA might not bring rape charges because it's almost impossible to win the case, so he/she might bring statutory rape charges because then it doesn't matter if he says she consented, because even if she did she's still too young--so that case is winnable.