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The Heart Balm Torts, an American Anachronism

Judge Matthew Martin, in conversation with Joshua Xerri, discusses the contentious Heart Balm Torts. Recorded Monday 25 January.

In this session we will learn about the heart balm torts: alienation of affections and criminal conversation, civil actions that the United Kingdom abandoned fifty years ago, but which still exist in Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah and allow cuckolded spouses to sue for "injuries" to their marriages. While these may seem quaint or even the fodder for jokes, in North Carolina they are no joke, as unsuspecting defendants have found out.