Guides To Writing A Review To Avoid Defamation.

This guide is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. You should not rely upon this information without seeking advice from a legal representative who is competent in the relevant field of law.

There is a major factor you should consider before making your review or leaving an interview tip..... whether anything in your review will violate a binding contract obligation between you and your employer. For example, most employers require their employees to sign a confidentiality agreement. This means that if you disclose legitimately confidential business information in your review, your employer may have a claim against you.

• Your agreements with employers may also include a non-disparagement provision or other restrictions on what you can say on sites like Glovaro. Sometimes these restrictions are improper.
• But in other circumstances, such as when these provisions are included in severance agreements in exchange for additional payment to you, they may be enforceable. You are legally responsible for aiding by your binding, enforceable contractual agreements.

Before we delve into what can be tagged as defamatory, we will need you to understand the concept of defamation first.

Defamation: A false statement presented as fact that is harmful to a company or person's reputation, and published "with fault," (meaning as a result of negligence or malice). Libel is a written defamation; slander is a spoken defamation. As a Nigerian, you are protected through Right to Freedom of Expression in Chapter 4. Section 39 of the Nigerian constitution but you can still be sued for defamation.

• If an employer challenges your Review, the most likely route they will take is to sue the reviewer or "Jane or John Doe" (if you published anonymously on Glovaro) and then serve a subpoena (make a legal demand) on Glovaro to produce records about your identity even if you submitted anonymously.
• If the Plaintiff can make what is called a "prima facie showing" (Prima Facie is a Latin phrase lawyers and judges use in defamation cases to mean that based on the first impression, before you get a chance to explain what you meant by a statement, the statement appears to be defamatory and the Plaintiff has offered evidence that it's false) to the Court that your Review is defamatory, it is much more difficult for Glovaro to prevent the Plaintiff from convincing the Court to force Glovaro to turn over information about your identity. If Glovaro is forced to turn over the information it has about your identity, you can still fight the defamation lawsuit with your own lawyer, but the Plaintiff would know who you are.
• Truth can be a defense but we don't want to go there if we don't have to. We strongly suggest you not make provable statements of fact in your Glovaro reviews. We encourage you instead to offer your "opinions" about your workplace. Note that merely labeling a statement as your "opinion" does not make it ‘not’ defamatory.

What is a Statement of Verifiable Fact?

A statement of verifiable fact is a statement that conveys a provably false factual assertion, such as "someone stole someone’s bag in the office.” If you say in your Review that "the CFO embezzled company funds", well, that's hard to characterize as an opinion. If you say instead "it seems to me there is a lot of embezzlement going on in my company" it is much more likely to be considered an opinion.

Now comes the topic of disguising the name of the person you are writing about. You can actually defame someone without even naming them directly if it is clear to the reader beyond reasonable doubt who you are referring to. For example; The owner of the bird app...well we all know what the bird app is and who owns it. Also note that our policy only allows you to name individuals in the C-level only when making a review, anything aside that is going against our policy. Take for instance naming your Head of department directly in a statement like; “Our Head of Department...” rather say “The senior management...”

We wouldn’t want you getting into troubles you never bargained for and it will surely suck not just personally but also financially to get sued. Since neither of us want that, we strongly encourage you to find ways to review your company that are clearly your opinion and clearly not statements of provable fact.

If you are in doubt, and you really want to make your point, ask a friend to read your Review before you post it on Glovaro.

Don't include confidential business information in your review and be mindful of any legally enforceable contract obligations you have agreed to that related to your review.