Slander is oral defamation of character. Defamation is a civil offense that occurs when one party makes false and malicious statements about another to a third party. Many jurisdictions have slander laws that address this type of behavior and allow the harmed party to recover damages.
For statements made by one person about another to be considered slander, several circumstances must exist. To begin with, the statements must be conveyed to a third party. The law does not generally recognize the possibility of defaming a person to herself. Also, the statements must be false. No matter how private or hurtful a comment is, it cannot be subjected to the justice afforded by slander laws if it is true.
Furthermore, if a person wishes to use slander laws to seek justice, she must be able to prove that the statements against her were made with malice. To do this, she must show that the accused had the intention to do harm. If someone makes false statements mistakenly and it hurts another person, this is not considered a malicious act and is therefore not slanderous.
Slander laws allow a person to sue for personal injuries in a civil court. These laws recognize that a great deal of damage can be caused by defamation of character. A person may lose her job or have her business ruined because of false and malicious statements. She may suffer mentally and emotionally due to ridicule and difficulties created in her personal and social relationships.
Financial remedies, in the form of actual or punitive damages, may be awarded to a person who suffers from these or other hardships due to defamation. Before a person is awarded these damages, however, the accused has the opportunity to defend himself. One aspect of slander laws that vary from one place to another are the acceptable defenses. For example, in some jurisdictions, a person cannot be held liable for statements that can be identified as opinions.
There are certain other instances when false statements may be made about a person without the individual being subjected to the consequences outlined by slander laws. For example, statements made to the subject in anger are not punishable even if a third party overhears. Generic statements made about groups, such as homosexuals, minorities, or an organization, do not give any individual from those groups the right to sue. Also, false statements made by lawyers, witnesses, or judges in a courtroom setting are excluded from slander laws.
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chris203
Post 3 |
About five months ago, I got a graveyard lead position with the company I work for. I was good buddies with a coworker whom I worked with on swing shift. For some reason, he told his lead that I brought my gun to work and it was in the back pack that I had with me. This lead told a supervisor who then wrote it to my manager in an email. I had two supervisors talk to me the same night and looked through all my things to find nothing. I almost lost my job because of this. Now this coworker seems to always have a problem with me or the work that I do. He tells me as a pass down that my bosses told him to tell me to do things that are not true. I have to talk to my manager daily to combat his lies. Now my manager says it is a dead subject, but I'm still having to go to work and deal with something new every day. What can I do now to make all this go away for good without losing my job? |
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SauteePan
Post 2 |
@Mutsy - I think that the tabloids get away with saying the things they say because a lot of times there is an element of truth. According to the libel and slander laws the information must be false in order for it to be considered slander or libel. If you say something about someone that is negative but true, there is no slander.
However, if you spread rumors about a coworker in order for that coworker to get fired then that is slander because not only were you telling lies about the person, but you had malicious intent which was to get the person fired. |
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mutsy
Post 1 |
I know that a lot of celebrities do not prosecute tabloid newspapers for violating slander and libel laws because they don’t want to draw attention to the magazine and spike of their sales.
They also know that these types of cases are difficult to prove and often the judgments when there is a winning case are very small. This is usually why celebrities stay away from pursuing law suits. In fact the only celebrity that I can remember that sued the tabloids successfully was Carol Burnett.
She was accused of drunken misconduct in a restaurant and she sued for libel because not only was this not true but Carol Burnett had a sensitivity to alcohol because both of her parents were alcoholics. She donated a portion of the proceeds of her judgment to the University of Hawaii’s school of journalism for more law and ethics classes. |
