Slander

[Alex34]

Hi. I hope you can help. I'm going to give background and then ask my questions.

In the past, I had websites with commenting features and a business email that all received slanderous comments / emails. Those sites no longer exist. I was using StatCounter, so I have a record of IPs that hit the sites when the comments / emails were made/sent. I now have other places I write online where people can also leave comments. Same thing - I'm tracking the stats. I have received slanderous comments on some of my writing, and I have recently been signed up for newsletters I didn't sign myself up for. The notices I received have recorded one IP address as the originating requester.

I have a pretty good idea who is doing this. I have emails from the various family members whom I suspect are the people making the slanderous comments (by family I mean the people making the attacks are from the same family, and they are all related to my ex). I know this is *possibly* considered Tortuous Interference with Business Practices, but I have to be able to prove it. The issue is whether I should go to a lawyer and spend the money, if, in the end, I'm not going to be able to prove where the emails / comments are coming from anyway.

The IP addresses back when this was happening several years ago all had nearly identical IP addresses, except the last number or two would change - the numbers after the last decimal and rarely the numbers after the last two decimals.

So here are my questions. I'll number them.

1. So if I have the IP addresses from emails (none of which are gmail), and I have the IP addresses from the comments on previous business websites and emails, and I have the IP addressees on the most recent newsletter opt-ins, is there a way I can tie them to one or several people / computers?
2. I have an upcoming custody trial with these people. Can I tie this to any of them with any degree of certainty? (This is assuming the IPs can be tied back in some way.) Like could I make a persuasive argument that even though the last couple of numbers may be slightly off, there is a high degree of certainty that the comments / emails are coming from the same place?
3. What is the likelihood that I could contact the ISP and get a definitive name & address associated with the IPs? And would I need a subpoena to do so?
4. Do I have other options that you can think of?

Thanks for your help. I look forward to your response.