It’s a rare day in Texas where a single-plaintiff employment case results in a seven or eight figure jury verdict.  However, as the Austin Business Journal recently reported,Microsoft was hit with an $11.6M jury verdict in a defamation case filed by a former employee falsely accused of sexually harassing a Microsoft contractor.

Defamation cases can be particularly dangerous for employers and individual supervisors alike.  Good reputations are valuable and difficult to quantify.  Additionally, defamation claims are one of the few claims where individual managers and supervisors can be held personally liable. Consequently, when it comes to discussing information about former employees with third parties, Thumper’s father was right.  "If you can say something nice, don’t say nothing at all."

A copy of the Mercieca v. Microsoft complaint can be viewed here.

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