Cantonment, FL asked in Libel & Slander and Employment Law for Florida

Q: Can you sue for defamation of character if you are fired after a customer lied about you?

If a customer lied and said that you were rude to them so you were fired. Now you have to put on future application that you were fired. The customer lied about the whole incident.in Florida. I have never had any complaints about me being rude

1 Lawyer Answer
Mitchell Feldman
PREMIUM
Answered

A: The tort of slander prohibits someone from publishing or making a false statement or defamatory statement, known to be false. So while you could make a claim against the customer, a matter of opinion isn’t going to help you if that’s the customers opinion. How would you ever prove the customer was lying? That would be the question. If it’s something black or white like somebody said you hit them and you didn’t, then you have more of a likelihood of success. In this instance, unless there was a clearly factual, false statement, I don’t see any potential legal claim.

Stephen Arnold Black agrees with this answer

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