Can I Sue My Employee for Defamation of Character?

Imagine this scenario: your business is slacking for no discernable reason. You haven’t recently changed your prices, and the market suggests that your business should be in demand.

You try to figure out what’s wrong and learn that somebody is spreading a false rumor about you that’s damaging your business. Even more shockingly, you discover that your own employee is the one spreading the rumor. Your first thought is, “Can I sue my employee for defamation of character?”

Or perhaps your first thought should be, “Can I sue my ex-employee for defamation of character?” There’s no good reason to keep someone on staff who has slandered you, damaged your reputation, and harmed your business.

A Morgan & Morgan attorney can help you get compensation for the loss of business and damage to your reputation caused by your employee’s slanderous actions. When you ask, “Can I sue my employee for defamation of character?” our answer is a resounding, “Yes.”

Don’t let the harm from defamation of character last for another minute. Go online and fill out our contact form today to get a free case evaluation for your slander or libel case.

Defamation of Character

Defamation of character is a specific legal term. Just because somebody calls you a jerk or says that you’re a no-good cheat, it doesn’t mean that you can sue them for defamation of character. Insults and slurs may be frustrating, but they rarely incur legal liability.

Legal liability is the key to understanding defamation of character. Freedom of speech in the United States means that people can say just about anything without suffering legal consequences from the state.

However, there is a difference between being punished by the state and being liable for compensating another for the damage that your speech caused. The latter is important for determining defamation of character.

A person can be sued for defamation of character if:

• They lied about another person
• They expressed the lie in a public manner
• The lie resulted in meaningful harm to the individual who was the subject of it
• The harm caused by the lie can be assigned a financial value

If all of these things are true, the person who told the lie is legally liable for damages in a defamation of character lawsuit. Outside of civil law, defamation of character has no real meaning.

Meaningful Harm

Before the lawyers at Morgan and Morgan take any defamation of character lawsuit, we investigate to determine whether the lie told caused meaningful harm.

In the original example, the lie resulted in a loss of business and diminished reputation. Both of those are considered meaningful harm because they can prevent a person from being able to make a living and support themselves or their family.

If the lie had been much tamer and hadn’t resulted in a loss of reputation or business, the theoretical employer probably wouldn’t be able to file a lawsuit for slander.

However, this doesn’t mean that the theoretical employer couldn’t fire their dishonest employee. If an employee is lying about you, regardless of whether it is meaningfully harmful or not, you almost certainly don’t want to keep them on staff.

Assigning Financial Value

The other important part of the definition of defamation of character is the ability to assign financial value to the harm done. Again, looking at the original example, it is easy to assign financial value to the lost income resulting from reduced business.

You can simply look at the difference in income between the time before the lie was circulating and after it was circulating to estimate the financial value for that harm.

However, it is much trickier to determine the financial value of the loss of reputation. Loss of reputation can harm you in several financial ways, many of which might not be immediately obvious. For example, a loss of reputation could result in:

• Loans being refused
• Inability to hire capable workers
• Inability to rent a good location
• Reduced business
• Getting turned down for a job
• Harassment

Each of these things is harmful and could potentially cause long-term financial harm, but there is no easy way to assign specific dollar values to this harm. Experienced libel and slander attorneys from Morgan and Morgan can make evidence-based estimates for the financial value of this harm by referencing past cases.

Feeling Betrayed by an Employee

It isn’t uncommon for employees to speak negatively about employers. A lot of employees are unsatisfied with their jobs or with some part of the management.

Many employees will complain about things that happen to friends or family in private or even to the whole world on social media. But as long as the employee isn’t lying, this behavior isn’t an example of slander or libel.

When an employee starts to fabricate things about their workplace or specific individuals in their workplace, that’s when they might be crossing the line into slander. As an employer, this behavior likely feels like a betrayal to you. You provide income for the employee and expect some level of respect or gratitude for that.

You may feel betrayed, but you don’t want to get too worked up over this action. While you do pay the employee, that doesn’t automatically mean they owe you anything more than the specific work you are paying for. An employee slandering you is no more a betrayal than a random stranger slandering you.

It is important to keep this in mind because getting upset will likely only harm your case. If you overreact and fail to follow the proper process, you could make it harder for the Morgan & Morgan team to get you money for your defamation of character case.

In the worst-case scenario, overreacting could potentially make you liable for damages against the employee who slandered you. You definitely don’t want that.