Delaware--Can a previous employer call my present employer and make false claims about me and force another employer to fire me based on lies :( And what can I do about it or who can I contact. This same previous employer has done this to other former employees as well. Who can I contact??

I'm curious how the former employer can "force" the current employer to fire you, short of holding a gun to his head. Your current employer has the right to free choice; nothing your former employer can do or say puts the current employer under obligation to fire you.

I do have a lawyer and tortious interference is what he is looking at but my question is can a former employer contact a present employer legally. The labor board would do notheing for me. In this case these are ruthless dentists that threaten to take new employer to board of ethics and put her through a lot of trouble. i don't blame the new employer except that I had warned her that this may happen because it had happened before. They stated that I was calling their patients to make them leave their practice to follow me when in truth the patients looked up my phone number and called me. There had been a lot of turnover in their office because of their business practices and patients did not trust them. Other former employees do not want to go to the trouble of paying a lawyer, but they have to stop doing this to former employees!! So I am taking them on.

There is no law that specifically prohibits one employer from contacting the other. That doesn't mean you have no claim; it means that it will be based on specifically what was said and not the fact of contact. If you have a lawyer he is the one who should be answering your questions, not us; he knows far more about the situation than we do.

I still want to know how one employer can "force" another one to fire you. One presumes that free will still exists.

It's fear of legal confrontations which this particular dentist did not want at this time of her career knowing how nasty these people are.

WHAT legal consequences? Unless you were in violation of a non-compete of some sort, your former employer had no grounds to create any legal consequences for her because she hired you.

She was not forced to fire you; she chose to fire you.

Again, I'm not saying you have no case. I agree your attorney should be looking at tortuous interference. But it's nonsense to say she was FORCED to fire you.

Maybe forced is not the correct word. I guess she knew that my former employers were difficult and that if they complained to the board of examiners then it would start a hassel for her. She figured it was better to let me go then be hasseled by them in any way. Since I had worked for her only a short time it was better to let me go. My problem is not so much with her but the harrassment from my former employers.

The former employer really have nothing but inuendo and lies about me but because they are known to hassel everyone from former employees to their peers and no one wants to really tangle with them. There have been many complaints to the ethic board about them from their peers but as I was told by one dentist that he lodged a complaint but only wanted it on file, he did not want to follow through. He told me that there were at least a dozen other such claims. I find it disheartening that people would rather walk away then stop this professional terroism of sorts. It makes life difficult for someone to move on knowing that they can pick up the phone at anytime and call someone that I might be working for to slander me in some way. Luckily I have found an employer who will not tolerate this and will stand up for me if he is called.

The thing is that it is legal to call and give your new employer a hard time for having hired you. Most folks would simply hang up the phone. If someone called me unsolicited and offered advice on an employee of mine, they wouldn't get very far. Anyone threatening to file bogus complaints about me for not doing what they wanted would be hearing from my lawyer about a little thing called blackmail. But then I'm stubborn enough and dislike bullies enough to stand my ground. There just aren't any laws that force an employer to disregard what they hear from third parties and yes, there are times that as an employer, I do need to listen to them.