Can I sue for slander?

Question

If someone accuses me of harassment and I have this accusation in a letter signed from them, Can I sue for damages if this is incorrect?

Basically, I was in business with somebody and money went missing out of the bank account. I made many, but polite enquires by email regarding the missing money. Now my ex partner is saying that I harassed them which is completely untrue.

As they stole money from me I am extremely annoyed by any suggestion of harassment especially when I was so restraint in writing the emails

Obviously the laws in this regard are different in each country but I would like to get a consensus before I add this to the list of charges I plan to press

They acutally sent the letter to the company secretary, I am one of the directors as it the company secretary. On that letter they said that I harassed them

Cazza and Nutsy,

I take you point but how do you know that Lawyers arn't some of the people answering? This way is far cheaper and more convienent than meeting a lawyer. Also look at the quality of some of the answers that I have been given!

Answer 1

To start with this would not be slander, it would be libel.

No, because you are the recipiant and the allegation is made to you.

If, however, the other person has been telling other people about it (verbally) then it may possibly be slander unless it can be shown that the allegation is true.

There are a few other legalities but I will not bore you with the details.

I think the theft of company funds is a more important issue, I am surprised that you have not contacted the police already.

Your reference to the Protection from Harrassment Act need not cause you any concern as you are investigating an allegation as an appointed officer of your company, which you have to do as part of your duty of care to the company.

Don't bother with the libel action at this time, concentrate on the stolen funds.

The harrassment allegation seems to be simply a tool to try to stop your investigation. Ignore it, you are acting within the law.

I strongly urge you to report this to the police and let them do their job.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

First, as has been pointed out the matter is libel, not slander.

Secondly, surely the basic issue is that you feel you have lost money. You need to consider whether to sue for this or to go to the police and seek criminal charges. You need to consult a lawyer about this. Even if you feel your ex-partner stole from you, you should be very careful about saying this.

You do need to see a lawyer if you wish to take this matter further. Much depends upon exactly what you wrote in the emails, and in particular if you copied them to anybody other than your ex-partner. If you sue for libel it appears that your ex-partner is likely to counter-sue, so things could get nasty and expensive.

Given you are in business situation, presumably you are concerned to get the best possible financial result. For instance, if your expartner has "done a runner" your lawyer might advise you that you should sell the debt (for a fraction of what you incurred) to a debt recovery agency. Presumably your concern about the letter to the company secretary is that it damages your business reputation; stopping the statement recurring may be as important as recovering damages in court.

Do try not to get emotionally hung up about the issue. You will need to weigh the costs of proceeding against the money you recover and the reputation issue. Treat this in a business manner.

Finally, I am not a lawyer, but you cannot use internet advice here as a substitute for seeing a lawyer, even if you are lucky enough to get responses from lawyers. Firstly, you cannot put all the details on the internet. Secondly, a lawyer advising you personal advice has privileges of confidentiality which the internet does not. Thirdly, I doubt if you are going to get further with your ex-partner except through a lawyer, and you risk damaging your case if you communicate otherwise. Fourthly if you "plan to pres charges" you will need to see a lawyer anyway.

In short, go and see a lawyer.

Answer 3

Defamation cases are normally only pursuable if the accusation is a) made public (eg in the media) and b) likely to cause you financial loss (total character assassination in other words). I'd stick with the charges for theft. At least that could be provable, since the money was taken from a bank account. Ask a lawyer! This person has made it clear they do not wish to speak to you. If it's still applicable have your bank freeze the account while this is investigated. All the best.

Answer 4

You can't unless this accusation was publically made, if they only made this accusation in a private letter addressed to only you then it is not slander. It does sound like you might of been harrasing them - even polite emails could be seen as harrasment if there were a lot of them. Though it would depend on the timescale - was it one a day or many each day. Unfortunately they might have a better case than you as the courts are completely reliant on evidence and they will have a whole sheaf of emails to hold up against you whilst you will only have the letter they sent plus whatever evidence you can produce regarding the missing money. Good luck I hope it all works out in your favour.

Answer 5

This is not a slight on your character, it is simply a statement concerning something which the other person thinks you did. This would in any event be libel, not slander, as it is in writing. What's more, it is in private correspondence between the two of you. It has not been published to a third party. From what you say, this does not amount to defamation.

Even if this letter were to be shown to a third party, I think that the comment does not amount to libel, as it would not lower your reputation in the eyes of right thinking people, which is the acid test.

Defamation actions are tricky and expensive. You would be exceedingly ill advised to take any action concerning this letter. A court might well find a defamation action based on these facts vexatious and frivolous. If you lost, you could even end up paying the other party's costs as well as your own.

Answer 6

Actually, you cannot sue for slander if someone has written something defaming your character. You must sue for libel. In the United States, you would need to prove that such libelous statements defamed your character and caused some sort of tangible damage to your person, your estate, or to your family.

From the evidence presented, it looks as though your case doesn't hold water for the following reasons:
a) Harrasment can be defined as almost anything.
b) If the letter was not published, then nobody else would have seen it...

Answer 7

Technically this is defamation of character as it is in the printed/written word not by word of mouth. First you would need to prove that the person who wrote it did so out of malice. Second that they wrote it knowing that what they said about was incorrect. Third you would have to prove what they said is incorrect. If they expressed an opinion then the answer is no as it is their opinion to which we are all entitled to give. The only way round that is if they got to the stage where they made a definite accusation.

You have to ask yourself is it worth all of the hassle of going to court and the costs involved?

Good luck in your quest and your question.

Answer 8

You would not be looking at a slander issue, but a libel issue - after you proved it injured your reputation.

Slander is: Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation.

Libel is: A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person's reputation.

Answer 9

Totally agree with Cazza

Answer 10

in slander, you have to establish that it has created public damage to you....or that is has gone outside the noirmal channels of communication, and influenced others to turn against you. You have to show that in some tangible way you have suffered, financially, emptionally, or otherwise. Try not to go the emotional route because they will want to psychologically test you and tear you apart from childhood.