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Defammatory remarks made after being fired

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charlie99

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? FL

I found out that the VP of the department held a meeting immediately following my departure that included most of the company.
He made some very disparaging remarks regarding my work, behavior, ethics etc.

I have a number of witnesses to this as I have stayed friendly with most of my coworkers.

Do I have a case?
 


cyjeff

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? FL

I found out that the VP of the department held a meeting immediately following my departure that included most of the company.
He made some very disparaging remarks regarding my work, behavior, ethics etc.

I have a number of witnesses to this as I have stayed friendly with most of my coworkers.

Do I have a case?
What is the exact amount of your monetary damages as the result of these actions?

Where the statements made opinion (I think Charlie smells like a goat) or fact (Charlie is a goat)?
 

charlie99

Junior Member
$5000 mental anguish

His comments were personal attacks not related to my work.
You might see them as his opinion of me but they were conveyed as fact.
 

pattytx

Senior Member
Exactly. Feelings have no monetary value. You have not been financially harmed, and therefore cannot be financially redeemed. You don't have the basis for a lawsuit.
clt747, excellent job getting the poster to come to this conclusion "on his own". :D
 

quincy

Senior Member
Although I agree that there does not seem to be any basis for a lawsuit here, I did want to mention that damages can be awarded for both mental anguish and humiliation as part of reputational injury suffered from defamatory comments. There is no set price tag, obviously, that comes with such injury - but that does not mean that such injury cannot be compensatable in a defamation action. A jury determines how much an individual should be compensated for reputational injury.

In other words, monetary damages do not need to be demonstrated in a defamation action. There does not have to be lost wages, a lost promotion, a lost job. In fact, many defamation actions do not have such easily demonstrable losses.

But, again, there does not seem to be any basis for a lawsuit here. "Disparaging" comments are generally pure opinions, which are free to express, even when such opinions may seem unfairly critical or mean and cause embarassment. People are legally allowed to be mean.
 

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