slander

[sheela]

California - An ex-employee who was let go recently with 2 weeks severance pay, just because she has a small child, came back the following day to pick up her check. I let her in to the premises and the office not expecting anything hostile. She demanded I sign a recommendation for her that she had written down. I told her that I would not sign anything that I had not written, and that I would give her a recommendation. She turned hostile, started screaming, threatened to ruin my business if I did not sign the document and we had to call the cops to get her to leave - she left while we were talking to the cops. We have a complete recording on the camera as each room has camera, microphone which she was aware of.

Now she has slandered me personally, my business and my 3 year old grand-child online on google reviews.

What are my options here for legal action against her? All advice highly appreciated.

 

[swalsh411]

Did you try asking google to remove it?

 

[quincy]

California - An ex-employee who was let go recently with 2 weeks severance pay, just because she has a small child, came back the following day to pick up her check. I let her in to the premises and the office not expecting anything hostile. She demanded I sign a recommendation for her that she had written down. I told her that I would not sign anything that I had not written, and that I would give her a recommendation. She turned hostile, started screaming, threatened to ruin my business if I did not sign the document and we had to call the cops to get her to leave - she left while we were talking to the cops. We have a complete recording on the camera as each room has camera, microphone which she was aware of.

Now she has slandered me personally, my business and my 3 year old grand-child online on google reviews.

What are my options here for legal action against her? All advice highly appreciated.

First, slander is spoken defamation. What this ex-employee wrote online, if defamatory, would be called libel.

swalsh has already offered you a good step to take in getting any review removed. Asking the ex-employee to remove the review is another option (or having an attorney ask her, by way of a "cease and desist" letter). These are the best first steps to take to resolve the issue.

Any other steps would depend on what exactly was written about you, your business and your grandchild. Negative reviews and derogatory comments may not be defamatory. The exact comments made will determine what legal actions, if any, you are able to take, if the ex-employee and/or Google will not remove the review on your request.