Defamation of Character...do I have an argument?

Question

Had a dispute with a client. She dismissed me from her home after berating me.

As I went to my next client's home (a friend of the first) I saw that he was on the telephone. As I began my work, I saw him walk outside with his wireless phone to a spot about 75 feet away from the house. His phone conversation took almost an hour before he returned to the house.

As I prepared to leave, the second client told me that my services would not be needed at the end of the current term.

This was a week after he had explained to me that his children would most likely continue working with me into the fall months.

It would be easy enough to subpoena the second client and his phone records into court to show that the conversation he had on the phone that morning in my presence was with my first client. His change in expression towards me was immediate, and his decision not to continue as well.

What are my chances here? Loss of wages, punitive action against client 1, etc.?

Answer 1

Hi

If the second client was on the phone talking to the first client, and the first client said something about you that wasn't true which caused you to lose your job, it is slander. Slander is a form of defamation in which someone makes false and defamatory statements tending to harm another's reputation, business, or means of livelihood. For slander to take place, the false statement has to be spoken, and it has to be communicated to a third party, which in this case it would be the second client. If she said something to the second client that was untrue and it made you lose your job, it is definitely jeopardizing your livelihood, and you would then have a case. But you're not 100% sure that the guy fired you because the first client said something untrue about you, and you only suspect that this is the reason. You need to have proof that slander took place. But if you have several more clients, and if losing those two did not affect your livelihood significantly, then don't waste your time taking the case to court.

Answer 2

Slim and none. May we start over?

1. You must accept your responsibility in the "DISPUTE" with your previous client. We all have disputes with clients but somehow we must be "gentle" with explaining our position.
2. You must remember that the customer is always right. I'm sure you feel that way when you go into a store, and you are not heard by an agent of that store. It gets frustrating on the part of both individuals.
3. You need to realize that in any business "you win some and you lose some".
4. You cannot prove what people say over the phone - unless it is an agreed to "taped conversation".
5. You may have needed a "time to readjust your attitude" after you left the first client. Perhaps you were upset and the second client picked up on that attitude.
6. Always take a break when you know that a client has upset you. Take time to say "oh well, again you win some and you lose some".
7. Did you know that Thomas Edison (who was credited with inventing the light bulb) did thousands of things that did not work before he found things that did work?
You cannot give up just because things don't work.
It is obvious that things did not work for client #1 and client #2.
8. People have a right to change their mind.
9. I do not think any judge would give you anything since you business sounds as if you are a salesman and it is dependent upon you satisfying the customer.
10. No one owes you anything.
11. The sooner you realize that your job is to find a need in customers and fill that need, you will then become a great success.

GOD bless us always.
MBA-Boston Univ.
CPA-retired
I worked my way through high school. I worked my way through college - selling real estate. I worked my way through graduate school.
NONE OF IT WAS EASY but I needed the money to pay my bills. Sometimes people treated me very badly, but I kept my goals in mind, and went on to the next customer.

I do hope this helps, and if it does, let the "bad experiences of the past" stay in the past. Best of success to YOU!

Answer 3

It seems by the votes you've given to all of the correct answers that you only want to hear what you WANT to hear. So I won't waste my time.

Suffice it to say there are two problems with your "case":

1. You are assuming that the previous client was on the phone with your present cleint, and;

2. What was said was libelous.

First, you have no facts upon which to make such a determination and secondly, even if you did get a court to hear your case, without proof that the conversation eminated from the first client and was somehow relevant to your case, a subpoena won't issue.

You don't get to have the court issue a subpoena for a fishing expedition. Not even a good attorney can do that.

The advice you've been given is accurate.

Answer 4

Hold your head high and move on. Nobody owes you a job.