QUESTION
My former employer said untrue harmful comments about me to a prospective employer that cost me a good job. Can I sue and collect damages?
Asked on Aug 12th, 2015 on Employment Contracts - Kansas
More details to this question:
I worked for the Kansas Insurance Department in 2014. I completed all of the requirements for the professional designation "Certified Financial Examiner" and applied for the certification. The certifying organization, called SOFE, refused to issue the certificate and refused to explain why not. I resigned when it became clear that they would not issue the CFE to me, because the certificate was required for me to ever get promoted. Oddly my boss Ken did not seem alarmed by the situation. I later learned Ken probably called SOFE and interfered with the certificate to coerce me to continue working for a period of time without a raise. After I left the Kansas insurance department, a prospective employer John was very interested in hiring me and he called the Kansas Insurance Department and spoke to Ken. Ken was mad because I resigned. Ken uttered false criticisms about me which caused John to not offer me the position.
1 ANSWER
Assuming that Ken made untrue factual statements about you, rather than statements of opinion (for example, that you called in sick more than a dozen times last year would be a statement of fact; that you had an annoying personality would be a statement of opinion), you would seem to have a good claim for defamation. If what Ken said reflected on your qualifications as an employee, you may not even have to show actual damages (i.e. prove that you lost a job because of it) as such statements could constitute slander per se.
Answered on Aug 13th, 2015 at 12:24 PM