The recruiting business is a business of words…discussing competitors, checking references, passing information back and forth, and always comparing one employer or employee to another. It’s unrealistic to expect objectivity when your fee is on the line.

But far more than your fee is on the line; you risk unlimited personal liability for words that injure someone else. This is the area of law known as defamation.

Slander is defamation by spoken words, while libel is by any other means (written, taped, pictured, etc.). It’s often difficult to determine where slander ends and libel begins (writing a reference check based on a phone conversation, etc.), but if the words are defamatory, the only difference is that slander is more difficult to prove.

The words must:

• Be published (communicated) to third parties.
• Be about the victim.
• Defame (lower the reputation or standing of) the victim.
• Damage the victim.

The definitions and examples that follow should make you the resident expert at the office, maybe even keep you out of trouble.

PUBLICATION

The word publication is misleading. It means communication in any form.

In the case of written communication, it is presumed that at least one person read it. This means that in libel cases, the burden of proof shifts to the communicator. He or she must show the information wasn’t read.