do i have a case?

[strepanier]

What is the name of your state? wisconsin

Let me give a little background first. My brother in law remarried two years ago to awomen i have never gotten along with. but because of family we took them in when they had no apartment or money. after a few months of us paying all the bills and buying all the food we finally asked them for rent money. since then our relationship has been stressed and this women goes out of her way to say things that she knows will hurt me. lets call her mary.

The situation:

I work in a domestic violence shelter, since september 1, 2007. My sister-in-law, mary, had previously been a client of the shelter and when she heard i got hired there she became very angry. she confronted me and told me "she hated that i worked there because now she could never go there again." i told her it was her choice and that if she did come to the shelter i would not allow our personal stuff to interfere with her recieving the help she needs. yesterday i was called into the bosses office. mary had called and complained stating i had made copies of her file and given then to people, that i had told everyone what was contained in the file. this was not true, not even close. i have worked before in a setting where confidentiallity was a must and its not different here.

My question:

If i get fired over this matter do i have any course i can take against her. This is a very good job and works well with my family, i would hate to lose this job. can i sue her for slander? or would i have to prove that it is false? how would i prove its false, for every witness i brought forward to say i never spoke of her file or made copies she would have another saying i did. i just don't know what to do or what i can do.

any responses are much appreciated and thanks

 

[quincy]

An awful lot of hypotheticals here.

If you get fired because of Mary's lies, you could potentially sue her for defamation. But it would not be easy to win such a case.

First, you would need to show damage to your reputation by proving Mary's slanderous comments affected you either professionally or personally. Slander is a tough one, because you will need a witness to testify as to what was said, and an employer who will testify that it was Mary's comments that led to your firing. Otherwise, it would be a he-said/she-said situation, which limits your ability to win any defamation action to 50/50 at best.

If you are able to obtain your witnesses, you will then need to spend, generally, thousands to bring the defamation suit. Now, even if you win the defamation action against Mary, what will you win? Mary is living with you (when she is not at the shelter) because she has NO MONEY. She has nothing, apparently - except a room in your apartment and a husband who is reluctant to pay rent.

It hardly seems worth the effort to pursue any action against her, should your IFs become fact. I, personally, would give your brother-in-law and Mary two weeks to find another place to live.

 

[strepanier]

thanks for the reply, "mary" is not living with us any longer about a month after we asked them for rent they moved out, this was a year and half ago.we asked them for rent to help us pay our mortgage and other bills, it is hard to afford on one income, i had just had a baby and was not yet working. since then our relationship has been stressed to the point that i can no longer attend family functions with her there. i know her reasons for being so angry with me, stem from my good marriage with a caring husband, and she being the third wife of a man who habitually is a verbal abuser. i feel bad that it has to come to this because we are family and that is why we took them in in the first place. this thing with mary at work, has a good chance to lead to me being fired. if so i know my boss will say that was the reason for termination. basically i would love to forget this, keep my job, and pretend she never did this, it is my husband who wants to finally take action. he is tired of the things that she has done to me and doesn't want me to roll over on this. he believes she will continue to do this if i let that happen. i don't wanna contact her personally because i know it would make matters worse.

again thank you for the reply's im sorry i had to trouble you all with a bunch of family drama that has gotten out of hand.

 

[quincy]

I am glad that Mary has moved out of your home. You and your husband were kind to take her and your brother-in-law in, especially since Mary seems to be a rather toxic person. Families should be a source of comfort, and it is always sad when they are not.

I hope that your employer understands Mary well enough to discount what she has said, and that you will keep your job.