QUESTION
Employer made false claims in writing in an attempt to spark discipline. Can that person be sued in civil court?
Asked on Jun 17th, 2020 on Civil Litigation - New York
More details to this question:
I'm a Paramedic working for a private company, that is contracted to a county to provide emergency medical service. We often work with volunteer agencies. An officer of one of these volunteer agencies provided in writing false claims and outright lies in an attempt to have me removed from my position. The subsequent complaint was settled without issue, it was proved I did nothing wrong and this was a personal attack. Discipline for this officer seems unlikely despite the easily proven false claims.
1 ANSWER
Assuming that this person knowingly made false and derogatory statements of fact (notopinion) about you, you can sue him/her in civil court, but you have not mentioned sustaining any damages. Depending on what the lies were,you may not be requried to prove damages to win (some lies,including lies about your competentce in your job, are consdered defamation per se and damages are presumed), but since you apparently came to no harm from the defamation, you probably woulnd't be awarded much money even if you won.
Answered on Jun 18th, 2020 at 1:28 PM