Any Lawyers here? Need a legal Perspective on the world’s most ridiculous scenario

[Thisisastupidscenario]

So in this hypothetical situation… which I’m aware is ridiculous.

If an individual with an axe to grind was to approach the HR department of a company or the company in general (a large international company that has large customers) and make some allegations against an employee (namely that they’ve lied about their qualifications, despite fairly rigorous onboarding). Would or could that company sue that individual with an axe to grind for several million (maybe billion, and this is just an average joe here) for fraud and reputation damage?

to me it sounds like utter dog poo. But I’m not a sharp legal kind.

The company couldn't sue as it's not their reputation being attacked. And I have a feeling companies, corporations can't sue for defamation / slander anyway.

The only person who could sue for defamation / slander would be the person accused of lying about their qualifications. In reality going to law in this type of situation is incredibly costly, way beyond the pockets of the vast majority of the public. The individual could issue a 'cease & desist' letter, but what anyone would do if the individual didn't cease or desist I don't know.

Whatever - it sounds a distressing situation to be in. Do you / the individual concerned have a union or professional body who could advise / assist / support ?

You might want to get this moved to Legal, lots of knowledge there.

its actually a ridiculous scenario invented by a Walter Mitty relative, who is claiming to have qualifications to family from a very prestigious university and hold a senior post at a large company… most likely they work there but at a junior position.

this relative has now got caught in the lie and it saying the company are threatening to Sue any individuals who questions his (fictional) qualifications….see i told you it was ridiculous

There isn't any locus standi for the company to sue here. The company's reputation was not tarnished and they lost nothing from the act.

However, the employee who submitted their qualifications waallegedly accused of lying and may be able to sue for defamation, as this reputation allows damage was shared with 3rd parties, i.e. Work colleagues...even better if it was published..or the accusation was via email. High court costly action for defamation however.

I just posted for traffic… but I’ll report my post, thank you!

the situation is absurd and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going crazy

Oh OK, I see where you're coming from. Strange situation to be in. Stance remains same - no reputational damage to company means company can't take an action.

Honestly tip of the iceberg and as I’m one of the people who have cast aspersions on the Walter Mitty’s claims, because they don’t make sense. A doctorate that isn’t searchable but was fully funded and the person clearly doesn’t have a good knowledge of the area the doctorate is in, that got this person a high flying job with no industry experience at 70k per year, private jets etc… I’ve been threatened to be named in this law suit for MILLIONS and I’ll need to declare bankruptcy… i despair. I knew it was bollox in my bones, thanks for confirming!

Walter as we’ll call him was saying that unless the individual retracts their statement about his fictional quals that they’ll pursue a £100 mil lawsuit against the individual on grounds of reputational damage as it insults their hiring process and screening and vetting?

Well you could always ring the company and ask if they are planning on suing you 🤣

BuT thE miLliOnS 🥴🥴🥴

Are you the one who got in touch with the company?

Lol a £70 salary won't get you a private jet sadly 🥶

£70K even

Intelligence services asset and ones been bragging ? @Thisisastupidscenario

No.

Private jet with 70k a year 🤣🤣🤣

On a very basic level, defamation is about tarnishing the reputation of person A in other people's eyes.

So I can say "Fred, you're a thief" to Fred in private and no claim is possible.

But if I say "Fred is a thief" in front of John then Fred has a theoretical claim against me as it lowers his reputation in the eyes of John (provided, of course, that Fred is not actually a thief).

If you tell a company "you've hired a fantasist" then it only harms the company if you publish this comment more widely.

I know, that salary is missing three zeros….

Bollocks. Walter is just trying to scare you/others from 'turning him in' to his employer. Because he knows it's going to get him sacked if they know he lied on his CV.

I'm in the US, but during the course of my career I saw three people sacked on the grounds of 'falsifying qualifications'. And this wasn't even lying about a professional/licensing degree (ie nursing degree or legal degree), it was just lying about having a 4 year university degree.

Absolutely not. Even it there were grounds for a claim (and there isn’t) why would a corporation spend lots of money suing an unknown individual for ‘millions’ that the individual doesn’t have?

This is absolutely fabulous.......what a load of twaddle. No chance that a company would do that to a random individual

My company actually did discover an employee lied on their application about degree level/professional qualifications without which they shouldn't have been working in that position.

After terminating their contract there is (incredibly) no legal recourse against the former employee, so I'm fairly sure you're safe op.

And I wouldn't he able to help myself from dobbing Walter in to his employer...

I think the OP is saying that the company provides the employee with private jets for business travel, not that he can afford them on a £70k salary.

But yeah, it's a load of old puff, there is no legal case here at all.

I wonder if you might be protected under whistleblowing policies if Walter's nonexistent qualifications and incompetence might be a risk

Have you written about this guy before, there was a thread before about a relative claiming to be something big.... May have been gov security.