Can a regular person like me, win in court against a big time lawyer when I'm telling the truth?

[tripp]

I filed a small claim against my landlord for slander because my landlord's employee wrote a letter to my employer on company letterhead fabricating a phone conversation we had about the reason a previous employee of my landlord's who is now an employee at my previous job was fired. The letter my landlord's employee wrote led to me being written up & eventually fired. Basically the situation is my landlord fired this employee because they found out she was stealing money. I went to my HR with this info to protect my job. In turn my landlord denied ever telling me this. I have 1 witness to the conversation, my husband. I found out through my landlord's lawyer that they have a witness to the conversation as well. Their lawyer is saying I have no ground to sue the company & will not tell me who I do have the grounds to sue. Their lawyer will sue me for attorney's fees if I don't dismiss the case. I'm telling the truth but how do I prove this other than with the letter as proof of slander & my husband as my witness? Also my landlord refuses to deny or confirm the reason she was fired. Will they have to answer this in court? Also if I choose to dismiss the case before trial, how do I do so?

[parnell]

Hi there

I will advice you to drop the case unless you can afford a better lawyer, unfortunately lawyers are bastards and if he is a small claims lawyer it most probably means that he is well connected with DA and that means a immediate fail for you,

This might be the ideal time to forgive and forget as they say
Save yourself the hassle its not worth

Had the same experience and it is a very long and frustrating proses witch you will most lightly lose.

You have to drop the case at the small clams court if it is close to the court date other wise at your police station

Good Luck

[muireach]

Hi there

I will advice you to drop the case unless you can afford a better lawyer, unfortunately lawyers are bastards and if he is a small claims lawyer it most probably means that he is well connected with DA and that means a immediate fail for you,

This might be the ideal time to forgive and forget as they say
Save yourself the hassle its not worth

Had the same experience and it is a very long and frustrating proses witch you will most lightly lose.

You have to drop the case at the small clams court if it is close to the court date other wise at your police station

Good Luck

well first off, and im not being rude only honest, it's not what you know it's what you can prove, and second unless you can prove that the conversation was fabricated you wouldn't have grounds to sue, what you could do is look in the phone book and call any of those lawyers that offers Free Legal Advice and find out for sure whether or not this will be a waste of your time and money

[jerrick]

Hi there

I will advice you to drop the case unless you can afford a better lawyer, unfortunately lawyers are bastards and if he is a small claims lawyer it most probably means that he is well connected with DA and that means a immediate fail for you,

This might be the ideal time to forgive and forget as they say
Save yourself the hassle its not worth

Had the same experience and it is a very long and frustrating proses witch you will most lightly lose.

You have to drop the case at the small clams court if it is close to the court date other wise at your police station

Good Luck

well first off, and im not being rude only honest, it's not what you know it's what you can prove, and second unless you can prove that the conversation was fabricated you wouldn't have grounds to sue, what you could do is look in the phone book and call any of those lawyers that offers Free Legal Advice and find out for sure whether or not this will be a waste of your time and money

Lawyers will lie and cheat to win a case. They will make things up to prove a point, no matter that it is all fiction. Their fictional witness will counterbalance your witness, so the case is stymied for the judge. So unless you have a friendly witness who can actually prove something you don't have any real evidence.

Lawyers = Liars.

[eddis]

Sadly, it sounds as though you are in over your head. Your case should be filed against the person who slandered you (the landlord didn't write the letter, the ex-employee did).

It is illegal for the landlord to discuss personal information (such as why someone was fired) with you unless you have a "need to know". Assuming that you did not have a need to know, the landlord almost has to lie to protect themselves from additional legal problems. If they don't, it could open them up to a law suit from the ex-employee and a fine from the Department of Labor. Strategically, your best bet is to leave the landlord out of the litigation.

The only way you can get the landlord to state whether or not the woman was fired would be to get a subpoena. This can be a tricky process in civil court; especially without an attorney or paralegal. Even if the landlord appears in court, their attorney can move to dismiss the case based on "cause of action" (you not having a valid reason to sue them). This would allow them to skip the testimony phase. Stating things another way, your case would be lacking evidence to support your claims.

Legally, the landlord's attorney cannot talk to you. However, if you call the attorney and advise him/her that you want to drop the case but you need assistance doing so, they will probably be more than willing to bend the rules a little bit. By the way, legally, they are not allowed to provide you with legal guidance (that's why the will not say who you should be suing).

If you still want to sue the ex-employee, consider hiring a paralegal to file a subpoena. Use the subpoena to obtain records of unemployment compensation (if she applied for unemployment compensation, these records would list why she left her last job). If this type of process is feasible in your state, you can sue the correct party, avoid the landlord, and avoid the high powered attorney.

Best of luck to you

[adare]

Why did you take it upon yourself to be the lead investigator for the HR department when they are the ones who are supposed to do pre-screening of job applicants before they are hired. It is not your place to gossip about someone and try to get them fired based upon gossip. Unless you were the HR rep for the landlord, then it was not your place to say anything bad about the person and even if you were the HR rep for the landlord, still most employers will only say a person was "terminated" on such and such a date. "Terminated" can mean quit or fired. It means employment ended.Employers try to avoid lawsuits for slander by NOT saying bad things about people for the most part.No good can come of repeating gossip. It is a wonder they are not suing you. Maybe it IS true, still you shouldn't repeat it. If a potential employer wants to know whether or not to hire someone, then they only need ask the previous employer if they would re-hire the person or not. If no, then that is a tip-off, without repeating nasty stuff, true or not.

P.S. If it was proven that she stole money, then why wasn't she arrested? Maybe because it was probable but they couldn't prove it or they didn't want to take it to court over a small sum of money.

P.P.S. It is a mistake to go into court over something that you started yourself. You brought your firing on yourself by gossiping about your co-workers. Then the employer will think what bad things might you tell other people about THEM.I realize it is bad losing your job, but I think you should drop the suit (or get a lawyer). It could stay in court forever with the lawyer filing paper on paper requiring you to file a paper back. That is how lawyers make money. And if that happens it may be a long time before the judge even hears the case. It could be kept in limbo forever by a skillful lawyer.It is not worth your time or energy. Let it go as a lesson learned the hard way and move on. There is no predicting where this will lead, but without a lawyer, I think you do not stand a very good chance. It could backfire on you in a really bad way. Without a job there is no way for you to pay back a judgement against you. So as bad as you think things are now, they definitely could get worse.

PPPS. If you need a job or unemployment, work for a temp agency for a few weeks (6?) and then when they don't give you enough hours, apply for unemployment based on "lack of hours" (same as "laid off".) Then they will still go after former employers to consider unemployment, even if you quit or were fired.