Q: I just discovered that my past employer/boss was spreading rumors could I still sue for defamation?
It's been a year since I left but a manager I worked with that left told me the store director contacted her(showed me the texts) and was the one spreading the rumor to get me fired/force me to leave.
A:
Defamation has a one year statute of limitations. The discovery rule likely applies meaning that the time does not begin to run until you discovered, or a reasonable person would have discovered, facts giving rise to your claim, but it is not necessary that you discover every piece of evidence. A strong argument can be made that the time started ticking when you discovered you were fired because of specific false statements that were made about you even if you did not know at the time who made those statements. In your case, whether the discovery rule will help depends on the specific facts and circumstances. Maybe you suspected but didn't know and your efforts to try to figure it out were reasonable but you couldn't learn specifics or who was responsible until the manager shared the text messages with you.
Obviously a key part of your claim will be testimony from the person who actually made the decision to fire you exactly why they made that decision.
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