defamation of character

[debracc]

Is it defamation of character?

A company sets up a meeting with a client to tell them that a specific person is conducting illegal actions and that this company will be filing criminal charges against this person. At the time of the accusation/allegation to the client, the company didn't know if their statement was true. It was days after this meeting that the company researched the truth and found that their accusations were incorrect.

This specific person was an ex employee of the company and is now with a competative company. The client above informed this specific person of the meeting and accusations being made. Now, this specific person and the competative company both have their reputations at stake because of these allegations.

Is there legal actions this specific person and competative company can take?

 

[NYClex]

without the details it is hard to say, but it sounds very much like you have a defamation case here. You would have to look at the exact statement and determine if the company was negligent and if they had any privileges. If the statement was defamatory, which it probably was if it alleged criminal conduct, and the company was negligent, which it might have been if they made the statement before researching the situation, then they would be liable unless they had a privilege.

 

[debracc]

Thanks for your quick reply. The details are:

The company was making a list of all software installed and their appropriate license keys, on a client's server. They came across 3 different pieces of software they had no record of installing. Because this client was applying for their accreditation, the company had a meeting with the client to inform them that they didn't show any records of these 3 software. As told by the client to the specific person/competative company; The company stated to the client that a specific person had installed unlicensed software illegally onto the server and we will be processing criminal charges against this specific person for it. The client was quite astonished at the comment for they trusted this specific person.

Then when the company had their meeting with the specific person, they asked if him/her had installed these 3 'software' on the clients server without license keys. The specific person responded with yes and provided license keys for all, (which the company would have seen if they had opened the programs and looked!) or reviewed the workorders from when the software was installed.

What happened was over a year ago, this specific person was employed by this company mentioned, and was informed by the manager of the company to install these software. The specific person created a work order to state these 3 software installs.

Over the last year, the company's server lost data and included in this data is the workorders mentioned. When the specific person had a meeting with the client and told them the answers, the client remembered the event when it happened.

Now this specific person is no longer with this company ( just recently-last 3 months) and is with another competative company, since the leave several accusations have been happening, but this one was the most detramental of them all.

The client then had a meeting with the company and told them that they were not pleased with the manner in which the company handled these discrepencies and that they would not be able to continue business with them.

The client also had a meeting with the specific person/competative company and asked them for their business. The client also asked why the specific person/competative company was not acting on this misjudged conduct this company did. In the clients words, "This was a witch hunt! and they are out to GUN you!"

As of today, the specific person/competative company have decided to try and keep it out of the courts, but instead they sent a registered mail to the owner of the company requesting an apology.

Without making this letter lengthy, I have given you only one incident this company has done. There are several which all were addressed in the registered mail. The specific person/competative company are hoping that the registered letter will bring a close to this. If it does not, then they will be seeking further legal advice from a professional lawyer. At this time, they are just asking you for your thoughts and are thankful that you replied.

Thanks again.

 

[debracc]

PS: what did you mean "unless they had privilege."?

 

[NYClex]

Yes, as you know we cannot give specific legal advise here. One would have to look into the exact details, the wording, the positions of the people involved etc. But it looks as if there is some legal issue. An attorney then would have to evaluate the whole case.

Privileges mean that under certain circumstances people are allowed to make defamatory statements. Usually they can do that when "higher" interests are at stake. Example:

Joe has been accused of burglary. In fact, it was Jack who did the burglary, his brother, who looks pretty similar to Joe. Old Miss McDonald had seen the burglary and now is in court testifying: She says: I saw Joe climb into the window.

Luckily, Joe has a good alibi and is acquitted. Can he now sue Miss McDonald? The problem is, Miss McDonald, who is 88 years old and almost blind, really believes she saw Joe. Yet. it would be defamation to say that Joe committed a burglary, but in court it is privileged. She cannot be sued.

There are several situations in which such privileges exist.