Ask Me Help Desk - Possible defamation after quitting a job

Quote:

Originally Posted by kreese

I recently left a job in home improvement sales as the economy was effecting my take home pay (100 % commission) I had to find a more stable salaried job and I did. So I quit and asked the company for back pay they owed me which they did not like but they paid. I just recently heard from a customer of mine that the company told her that they fired me and that the problems she was having with their product was because of my incompetence so they fired me. None of which is true I decided to leave the company and demanded they pay me money owed. They paid me and are probably not happy about it. I am really pissed and want to take some action. Does anyone see any wrong doing on their part? If so is it compensable?

Following this (and I'm quoting myself) is a very brief, to the point thread I wrote about defamation/slander. It all comes down to proof AND DAMAGES.

What are your financial damages here?

"Briefly - Generally in law libel refers to permanent/written statements and slander refers to non-permanent/spoken statements. Defamation (of character) covers both categories.

You must be damaged - and prove damages - in order to recover. The statements (either written or spoken) must be false but presented as though they were true and be beyond offensive, derogatory or insulting. Such statement must rise to a level which actually harms a person’s reputation. In general the person making the statement must either know it isn’t true or make the statement without attempting to verify if it is true.

The defense to defamation is that the information was not presented as the truth (which covers gossip), that the information was never secret (privileged) and was always public."