Employment Torts (Workplace Personal Injuries)
Defamation
If your reputation has been damaged because someone intentionally made a false statement about you, then you may have a legal claim for defamation. In the context of the workplace, defamation can include false statements your employer made about you, or false statements someone made to your employer.
Defamatory statements can cause severe harm to your reputation, your career and other aspects of your life. Defamation can take the form of a false written statement, which is called libel, or a false verbal statement, which is called slander.
Tortious and Unlawful Interference with Employment
It can be legally actionable when an individual or company takes malicious actions that cause you to lose your job or a potential job. For example, unless you have a non-compete agreement, you may have a legal claim if another company prevents you from getting a new job because it does not want you to compete with it. Likewise, if someone intentionally provides false or misleading information to your current employer and you lose your job as a result, you might have a claim for unlawful interference with your employment relationship.
Assault and Battery
If a supervisor, co-worker, or someone else in the workplace intentionally physically injures you, you may have an employment law claim for battery. If someone at work threatens to physically injure you, may have a claim for workplace assault. A workplace assault or battery can be something as simple as a punch on the arm or a slap on the rear, but it can also be as a malicious physical attack, a rape, or other violent act that causes you severe physical or emotional injuries.
Under some instances, if the company was irresponsible or otherwise negligent in hiring, training and/or supervising the individual who committed a workplace assault or battery, or if the individual’s position with the company made it possible for him or her to commit the assault or battery, you may also have a claim against the company itself.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
It is unlawful for your employer or a co-worker to engage in extreme and outrageous conduct intended to cause severe emotional distress. While this is a relatively high standard, actions such as threats of physical violence, racial epithets or slurs, or severe psychological abuse may be actionable if they cause you to experience severe emotional distress.
Contact the experienced workplace personal injury attorneys at Resnick Nirenberg & Cash today to discuss your claim.
