Apr 15, 2021

One of the lessons I learned from the true story I describe in my new book “Minority Viewpoint – my experience, as a person of color, with the American Justice System” is that a defamer may have legal privileges if they slander your name from their place of work or if they slander you to people in law enforcement. In this story the defendant was damn lucky to have slandered my name from her place of work and also to persons in law enforcement!

As we learned in the worst of ways, both of these methods of operation brought tremendous advantages to my defamer. Because the defamation occurred from her place of work and in the course of her supposed ‘job duties,’ the defendant became eligible to have her legal expenses covered by the hotel’s insurance company.

As explained previously, this was a huge factor which enabled her to file expensive motions (including summary judgment and motion to compel) and ultimately prevail against me. Most likely, she would not have been able to do so if she had been defending herself with a private attorney. And of course because she defamed me to persons in law enforcement, we also needed clear evidence of malice to survive summary judgment.

Not to say that the latter could not have been overcome if, as per my understanding, I’d had a more experienced attorney with regards to defamation… one who might have known that it was necessary to show clear evidence of malice to overcome the qualified privilege and survive summary judgment. Regardless, it might have been a whole different story if defendant had committed slander out in the community instead of from work and to regular citizens rather than to the police.

© 2017 - Sumi Mukherjee
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