If any lawyers can spare a few minutes I desperateely need some advice about defamation of character

[absolutelydevastated]

Hello

I am really hoping that someone will be able to give me a bit of very general advice as i find myself in an extremely upsetting situation.

I cannot go into detail but basically I am a professional who has a lot of contact with the general public.

I have been working on a particular case which has been particularly complex due to one member of the 'clients' family. There is a history of said person being very aggressive (verbally), bullying and 'difficult' in general terms with both myself and others in my team.

Anyhow, things have come to a head and the person has now made a very serious accusation against me which is having to be investigated by my organisation (this is standard policy, all accusations of this gravity have to be looked at).

Obviously (!) what has been said is complete fabrication and 'luckily' for me is going to be fairly straightforward to prove as a lie.

However in the meantime I have to cope with this situation which may still damage my career (thinking 'mud sticks' here) and the whole process of the investigation is very very upsetting and stressful.

It has been suggested by my management (who incidentally have been brilliant and completely supportive)that I may wish to 'take things further' myself and once the investigatiojn is over I have decided to do this as its just so so unfair that anyone can cause so much stress and potential serious harm to someone in this way.

Can anyone advise what legal avenues might be available to me to seek redress for what this person has done. It potentially could have ended my career had it not been relatively easy to disprove and at present I am having to take meds etc for anxiety and low mood.

Any advice very very gratefully received

I'm not a lawyer but a journalist so have some understanding of defamation, and used to have a libel lawyer pouring through every page of my last magazine. My advice would be leave well alone. Defamation is hideously expensive. Yes, it hurts when someone tells lies about you, yes it's desperately unfair if those lies could damage your career or personal life... but defamation really is a rich man's game. Scandalous - as we should all have access to justice - but true.

There are unscrupulous lawyers who will take your money for sending a nasty letter, but any lawyer worth his or her salt will tell you to steer clear. Unless you have legal insurance that covers you for defamation for hundreds of thousands of pounds. And even then, does the person who accused you have any money? Defamation is a civil matter so the only remedy is compensation - and the satisfaction of proving the bastards wrong, but doing so will cost ££££££££££££ and you are unlikely to see any of it back unless the losing party has resources to pay you.

I am a lawyer but not a specialist in this area. It will either be a case of libel (printed defamation including online etc) or slander (spoken) IIRC. Both are very expensive to bring to court. However, a good lawyer should be able to write a very strong letter to get then to stop and you may even be able to settle for some compensation. Absolutely no chance of legal aid, but your professional body or employees might consider helping with the cost if it also has a bearing on your employer or the profession as a whole. Or possibly a union might assist.

You need a lawyer who is a specialist in this area. Where are you based?

edam is right that to take a case to court will be very expensive, but that might not be necessary. A good lawyer will assess your case and tell you whether it is worth perusing, rather than just dismiss the prospect out of hand.

A strong letter needn't cost a fortune and may be all it takes.

I have no experience of this myself, but it always seems to me that taking action to clear one's name in public leads to lots and lots more people knowing about the false allegation than ever would have known before...and it's the false bit that people would remember, especially if it were something a bit lurid.

just thinking about (rich) people spending a fortune to get super-injunctions - it increases everyone's curiosity about what they have to hide.

A private law injunction against an individual preventing harassment would be relatively easy to obtain, providing that the facts so far amounted to harassment, and would shut that person up but wouldn't 'clear your name' as such.

sympathy to you in your situation, it's obviously causing you enormous stress, but from the sound of it, you are in a profession where false allegations driven by spite may be part and parcel of the risks (hopefully very rarely), and it sounds as though your bosses are well aware of that.

Could you discuss with your management what could be done after the investigation is over, to leave a positive statement on your file, or some sort of 'declaration' that you are completely in the clear?

Also not a specialist but on the details you've given it is possible that the allegations are protected by qualified privilege. That basically means that in order to win a case for libel or slander you have to show that the allegations were made out of malice. It is not enough to show that the allegations are false. It is difficult to win cases where qualified privilege is available as a defence but not impossible. You would need specialised advice to see if the defence of qualified privilege is available to your accuser and, if so, whether you have enough evidence to counter it.

As others have said, libel and slander cases tend to be expensive and there is no legal aid available. You also need to be sure that your accuser has the means to pay any damages likely to be awarded otherwise you could end up out of pocket even if you win.

A strongly worded letter, on the other hand, is relatively cheap and may have the desired effect.

Thank you all very much for your replies, it has given me quite a bit to think about.

Personally i don't have the funds to persue a big 'legal battle' and as pointed out by Iheartdusty a lot more people would end up knowing the details etc if it went through the courts.

I am definately going to ask if I can meet with my employers legal dept when all this is 'over'. I think they would help me although again due to the nature of my work there will ot be megabucks avilable to persue this.

I don't think the person involved will have any defence and looking at the whole situation and my involvement in the original clients case its fairly obvious that this is pure malice/troublemaking/smokescreen to deflect attention from a serious issue that is going on between the person and my client.

Its so scary realising just how vulnerable members of my profession are!!!