I had recently applied for a bartending position in florida, and was told to come in and train 05/06/2006, and I did. It was agreed that I would start the next day at 5pm for my first official shift. I received a call today from the owner that says another bar owner in town came to her bar afyer I left, and had bad things to say about me to her partner. I have not found out who it is as of yet, but I will tonight when she calls back. If I loose my job over another persons malicious defaming comments to my new empolyer? This will be damaging to me financially; as well as emotionally. What are my options?

It's not defamation just because it's negative. The laws of this country permit people to give their opinion.

Whether or not you would have a case for defamation would depend on EXACTLY what was said. If what the person said was true, even if negative, you have no case; truth is an absolute defense against defamation claims.

If the person has spoken their opinion, that is also protected under the law.

You ONLY would have a case if what the person said not only was false, but was either knowingly or negligently false.

Examples: for the sake of argument and to make it easy to understand, let's pretend that you were fired from your last job for making too many mistakes with customer's orders. Keep in mind that I am making the examples deliberately extreme; there are many shades of grey.

Example One: "Midnightmarc was fired from his last job for making too many mistakes on customer orders". Not slander, not defamation, no case whatsoever - what was said is exactly true.

Example Two: "I wouldn't trust Midnightmarc with a job of this kind". Not slander, not defamation, no case; the person has given their opinion and what's more, they have a valid reason to hold this opinon.

Example Three: "Y'know, I heard a rumor that Midnightmarc was fired from his last job for stealing". NOW you're getting into slander territory; not only is it not true, but the person hasn't made much, if any, effort to find out if it's true or not. But even this is not GUARANTEED to win you a slander case; the person didn't state it as fact and MIGHT, depending on exact circumstances, escape meeting the definition if the person was able to show honest error.

Example Four: "I know for an absolute fact that Midnightmarc was fired from his last job because he embezzled $10,000 from his last employer". If you were to lose your job because of a statement like this, given our hypothetical situation, we're PROBABLY by now only determining how many zeros will be on the check you eventually get.

So you not only would need to know who, you'd need to know what, too.