Slandering of previous employer

[missso77]

I was wondering if there was anything that I was able to do about losing two possible jobs because my previous employer had stated that I was not to be trusted?? I don't understand what she meant by that, but the two possible employers where the ones who contacted me for a job, and once they called my old employer they never called me back? Can she say whatever she wants? Am I entitled to any legal matter? And what can I do to stop this? Please help...thank you!

 

[jacksgal]

They may say anything truthful or they believe to be truthful.

 

[cbg]

If the employer believes that you are untrustworthy, there is nothing illegal about her saying so. If that is her opinion, it is not slander.

 

[Duranie]

You cannot do anything about someones opinion. That is a VERY vague answer to give someone though. You might want to tell any prospective employers that you did not leave your previous employer on good terms and for some reason . Also do you know for sure this is the reason you are not being called back?

 

[missso77]

I was told by a current employee that that was what she told him, and that was when I figured it out to be the reason why he didn't hire me. Can I make a complaint to her main head quarters...she is part of a large corporation.

 

[cbg]

There's nothing prohibiting you from doing so, but she's not doing anything illegal. It will be up to them whether to take any action or not, and if they do not, there is nothing you can do except follow Duranie's suggestion.

 

[jacksgal]

Is anyone else getting repeated email notifications for same post on this thread? I have recieved over a dozen just in last ten mins!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Perhaps it is your service provider or email program? Take a look at the email header and see if it is a duplicate or if the mail is being resent at different times.

 

[jacksgal]

I dont think so this is only thread that this happening on! I am well over 40 emails now all with the same post which is several posts ago. I got no notification for cbg or your post. I even unsubscribed but still get the emails

 

[Michael Wechsler]

My guess is that it's your email service - do you use Outlook or an email client to download email from your server? Try to delete the message off your server or login to see if you have duplicate copies. If you received no notification of this post then I am guessing that you're getting the same message duplicate times. This is why I said to check the headers to see if the servers sending the email are identical.

 

[jacksgal]

Its fixed now but I have no idea what headers are! Sounds dirty:dgrin

 

[Michael Wechsler]

LOL. It's just dirty to read and understand. When an email is sent there is a record of the servers that sent the email and received it along with some other goodies. Unless you choose to see them, they are "invisible" and they are also not available in most web-based email services. A header looks like this:

Return-path: <thisaddress@thelaw.com>
Envelope-to: thataddress@thelaw.com
Delivery-date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:36:48 -0400
Received: from myserver.mydns.net ([64.62.134.218] helo=mail.thelaw.com)
by myserver.mydns.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.69)
(envelope-from <thataddress@thelaw.com>)
id 1Lh7lI-0006zv-AP
for thisaddress@thelaw.com; Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:36:48 -0400
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:37:12 +0000
To: thisaddress@thelaw.com
From: "TheLaw.com Forums - Free legal advice since 1995" <thataddress@thelaw.com>
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
Message-ID: <20090310193711.7e7e9c973310@www.thelaw.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: vBulletin Mail via PHP
Subject: Reply to thread 'Law of Statute of Frauds'

 

[jacksgal]

I never see that on my emails

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I never see that on my emails

You wouldn't. It automatically arrives with emails but whatever you use to read email doesn't show it to you unless you specifically look for it. If you use a client like Microsoft Outlook, your emails will arrive normally. But if you go to the menu system you can find an area where you can extract what I pasted for every email. It helps with identifying spam and other things such as what you encountered.

To explain what may have happened to you, a message could have been sent to the server at, e.g. Comcast. When you turned on your computer to connect to get email, that message was sent to you. But there was a glitch - every time your computer would request your email being sent to you it would download the same email. Your "inbox" would say it's a new email with a new time but it's really the same email, downloaded again and again. If you "tell" or set your email client to delete the message off the server after reading it, then the next time you connect to download your email your PC is telling the Comcast server to delete that message off the server. While not on the subject of this post, hope it helps you understand.

 

[Green_Hornet]

Hey Jacks's and L.P been gone a while! Glad to see you all posting. To answer Missos question, a prospective employer as well as a former employer could be guilty of negligent conduct, particularly if the sought position involves risk to the person as well as property of others (That's most jobs).

That said the prospective employer that checks the references and the former employer that supply information, are subject to potential liability if the exchange of information illegally harms the job applicant. This may arise under several common law principals, such as defamation, the right of privacy, and most important interference with prospective economic advantage.

Some states have enacted statutes to modify the common law this along with recent court decisions have begun to slowly move in favor of the job applicant.
Rightfully so in my opinion, since the potential for defaming a former employee by giving a bad reference is obvious. With the rise of easy access thru current technology such reform is long overdue.

Even company's that try an end run, attempting to reduce liability by having former employees signing a release form stating that the company will not be held liable in some cases is insufficient.
So the former employer should evaluate with honesty any request he/she receives regarding employee reference.


Defamation is divided into the torts of libel (publication) and slander (Speech).
Liability ensues under the following:
1.An "unprivileged" publication to another.

2.A statement that is false and defamatory, and

3. fault with respect to publication. In some instances, a plaintiff must prove that the statement has caused special harm.