What is my recourse if a co-worker wrote a completely false e-mail to my office saying that I am pregnant and planning to abort the child?
Question Details:
I told the story of my affair to a colleague and he had some previous problems with the guy I was talking about. So he wrote an e-mail to my office from a fake account that my ex-boyfriend does not hold good character. He also wrote that I am pregnant because of him and planning to abort the child. I have been publicly embarrassed over this. I want to take legal action against him. What I can do?
You could potentially sue him for defamation. Defamation is the public--and that includes even to one other person (e.g. the recipient of the email) making of a false factual statement that damages a person's reputation and/or causes others to not want to work with him or her. From what you write, you may have a claim for defamation, and you wish to discuss it with a personal injury attorney.
Also, it's possible that the colleague violated internal company policies, standards, codes of conduct, etc., and if so, it may be possible to report him to senior management and/or human resources and have the company take some action (e.g. suspension; firing) against him. This depends on what your company policies are and how they tend to react to inter-employee problems.
