Welcome to the blog. I encourage you to visit our FAQs, which will provide you with some really handy information that might help you understand your situation a little better. After you read the FAQs, you might want to check out our forums. You can get there by clicking the blue bug on the upper right side of your screen. You can chat with people who are battling bedbugs, or who have battled and won. There are lots of interesting ideas on the forums, and it’s important to remember that none of us are experts, but we all want to help.

The best thing you can do is hire a competent PCO (exterminator) to help assess your situation and point you in the right direction. There is an FAQ written by an experienced PCO that details how to go about choosing your PCO in our FAQ section. I hope you read it.

One last thing. Remember that this is a public blog, accessible by anyone at any time. If you’d like to remove your phone number, you can do so by editing your comment, or I would be happy to do so for you if you’d prefer. It’s up to you, but it might be best if you kept your private information private, for your own safety.

Again, welcome.

**Elaine, I deleted your phone number. If people want to contact you, they can leave a comment here, and you can both Private Message (PM) each other in the forums if you have registered for the blog.

You have to read between the lines. Yes–your analysis of this legal situation holds up. But what I was trying to show is that “you” got the bed bugs in Hawai’i and gave them to Mildred.

Or, did you?

(Cue 60’s TV “surprise” music: duh doh dah!)

Actually, you ride the subway every day to work. There are infested benches. The girlfriend had bed bugs, but got them in a different place than you did. You could have gotten them from the subway, or a bar, or your therapist’s office. But there’s no way your lawyer could find out those places are all infested. Some people’s PCOs can’t even find the bugs biting in their bedrooms.

My point is that any time during any day, any normal day, when you take a taxi or go to a restaurant or ride a subway, you COULD pick up bed bugs. If you were not allergic, you would not know. How can you be considered negligent, and what did you neglect to do?

Your analysis supposes that Mildred and her lawyer can figure out these possibilities for other sources. What I’ve seen is bed bug victims like Mildred assuming their own guilt, and it was later cast in doubt–after they paid the price.

Now, assuming all the above events, let’s suppose another neigbor who is also allergic sues Mildred. Mildred’s lawyer will suggest as a defense that she is not the cause. As a result, her lawyer will depose her neighbors. Upon doing so, everyone will learn about the trip to Hawaii and the girlfriend. The lawsuit will expand with more parties impleaded — including that hotel in Hawaii. Maybe that airline too. Now you’ve got a deep pocket or two. The judge could very well toss out the case because the causation chain is too tenuous, but you never know.

One additional note. You say the guy who went to Hawaii is not negligent. Are you sure? Maybe the case will reach an appellate court that establishes a new duty to take precautions upon returning from a trip. Stranger things have happened.