What is the name of your state? New Jersey
I worked for a bus company. This owner did a lot of things that were unlawful that I had noticed during my time there. I ended up in an accident at work where a coworker rearended my bus and I was out of workers comp. My employed told me that he thought I was not hurt, although 3 doctors proved him wrong (his own doctors). He and everyone else there were nasty and cruel after that. Now that background is established.. here is what happened. Two days prior to my accident, I was driving kids to school. These kids for weeks (the whole time i worked there) refused to sit down in their seats and the one rule we are supposed to abide to is to keep them in their seats for safety reasons. So, this day I told them they all had to sit with their seatbelts on. Most did, some still got up and ran around. At this point I stopped the bus, and made them all put on their seatbelts and told them that i was going to start the bus, then restop it and i wanted them to notice that the slightest movement of the bus causes them to move forward. One out of the 28 kids on the bus told the principal... by the time it got to her then to the next person, then the next, the story got way out of proportion. My boss told me he was friends with the cop and he'd explain to him what had happened. Two weeks after being out of work on workers comp, i get 2 summonses in the mail, one for simple assault and one for reckless driving. They said I had intent to harm those children. When I looked at the "discovery", my boss had changed his story about what happened. I had come to the conclusion that since he knew the cop, and he thought I was not hurt these were retalitory charges. These charges were thrown out before trial and I was found innocent of any wrongdoing. Is there a defamation here at all?
I worked for a bus company. This owner did a lot of things that were unlawful that I had noticed during my time there. I ended up in an accident at work where a coworker rearended my bus and I was out of workers comp. My employed told me that he thought I was not hurt, although 3 doctors proved him wrong (his own doctors). He and everyone else there were nasty and cruel after that. Now that background is established.. here is what happened. Two days prior to my accident, I was driving kids to school. These kids for weeks (the whole time i worked there) refused to sit down in their seats and the one rule we are supposed to abide to is to keep them in their seats for safety reasons. So, this day I told them they all had to sit with their seatbelts on. Most did, some still got up and ran around. At this point I stopped the bus, and made them all put on their seatbelts and told them that i was going to start the bus, then restop it and i wanted them to notice that the slightest movement of the bus causes them to move forward. One out of the 28 kids on the bus told the principal... by the time it got to her then to the next person, then the next, the story got way out of proportion. My boss told me he was friends with the cop and he'd explain to him what had happened. Two weeks after being out of work on workers comp, i get 2 summonses in the mail, one for simple assault and one for reckless driving. They said I had intent to harm those children. When I looked at the "discovery", my boss had changed his story about what happened. I had come to the conclusion that since he knew the cop, and he thought I was not hurt these were retalitory charges. These charges were thrown out before trial and I was found innocent of any wrongdoing. Is there a defamation here at all?