California Employees Defamation Blog
— Written by Paul Greenberg
Why an Employees Defamation Blog?
In the course of more than 25 years representing employees, we have found a great need to protect the reputation and privacy of our clients whose rights were trampled upon in the course of unjust treatment at work. We have noticed that employees often tend to be unaware of their reputational and privacy rights. This is understandable given that the law on defamation and privacy is more complex than other areas of employment law, which in itself is one of the more complex and challenging areas of the law.
Your reputation and privacy are fundamental, and you should know that your employer does not have the right to make false statements about you or unjustifiably snoop into or publicize your personal affairs. We hope this blog will be informative to you and shed light on possible legal rights you might have against your employer and/or an individual who has violated your reputational and privacy rights.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can ... destroy my reputation."
Defamation Liability Related to Workplace Investigations
Malice sufficient to defeat the conditional privilege has been found where there has been a failure to investigate the statement(s) or conduct at issue thoroughly and verify the facts stated. Rollenhagen v. City of Orange (1981) 116 Cal.App.3d 414, 423; Widener v. PG&E (1977) 75 Ca...
Examples of Defamatory Criticism of Work Performance
Bank loan officer was accused of being “terminated because he was not following standard operating procedures regarding loans, lacked regard for customer’s privacy, and the bank had received a number of customer complaints about him.” Prevost v. First Western Bank (1987) 193 Cal.A...
Defamatory Defense: What is the Absolute Privilege?
1. Statements made in the proper discharge of an official duty. For this protection to be triggered, the statement must be made by a public official (in other words, only government officials) and must be made in the official’s official capacity.
2. Statements made in any legislative pro...
Defamation Defense: What is the Conditional Privilege?
Common Interest. The conditional privilege applies only if the statement is reasonably calculated to advance or protect the interest of the communicator or the person to whom the communication is made on a matter of “common interest.” Deaile v. Gen. Tel. Co. of Calif. (1974) 40 Cal.App.3...
Defenses to Defamation
California law recognizes a number of defenses to defamation claims. Some of the most major defenses to defamation are:
• Truth: proof that a defamatory statement is true is a complete defense because falsity is an essential element of both slander and libel.
• The alleged defamatory statement ...
Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Words Can Destroy My Reputation
June 2014 – In an article published in Advocate: Journal of Consumer Attorneys Associations for Southern California, partner Iris Weinmann gives an overview of defamation claims, especially defamation by employers against employees.
View the full article
What Qualifies as Actionable Defamation: Fact vs. Opinion
The distinction between fact versus opinion is often difficult to assess, in part because language is susceptible to different meanings depending on the context. We ourselves had a case where an employer falsely stated that our client was terminated for “despicable conduct.” The court threw out o...
What is the Statute of Limitations for Defamation and When Does it Begin to Run?
For example, let’s say that one of your coworkers falsely told your employer that you had stolen money from the cash register. As a result, your employer fired you without giving you any explanation. You had no idea what you did wrong, and none of your former co-workers said anything about it. Fi...
My Employer Has Published False Critisism About My Work Performance. Does California Law Allow That?
Many employers often misinterpret this conditional privilege as some kind of absolute privilege. Far from it, the conditional privilege can be overcome if a plaintiff shows that the communication was either motivated by malice, or an abuse of the conditional privilege.
Malice is a complica...
What is Defamation and Why Does it Matter in the Employment Context?
Although easy to say, it's not quite that easy to prove. In many employment situations, there is a requirement that the statement be made with malice, which may be tricky to establish and can often be the issue on which a defamation claim will turn.
In the employment context, defamation claims s...
Defamation 101
Also note that the elements described above are elements that a private figure plaintiff must prove regarding defamatory statements of a private concern. This is the type of situation that most employment claims arise out of, but there are special laws with respect to public figure plaintiffs (e....