Griffin Speaks

Some examples of the comments I receive are: Did you know so and So.’s wife ran off with a prisoner? Did you hear about so and so filing bankruptcy? You know so and so lost his house. Did you hear that so and so were found in bed together by so and So.’s wife: stuck together, had to call the paramedics to “unstickem”! The list goes on and on. 

Debra sometimes gets angry with me for standing in the grocery store listening to some of the stories that people tell me. There is one person that I literally duck every time that I see her. I call her “Gay Dar” She wants to tell me who is gay in Montgomery. One day she was gossiping and mentioned someone that I knew. I knew for sure then that she didn’t know what she was talking about. 

Many of the people that spread rumors are subjecting themselves to possible lawsuits if the victim finds out. They could lose their personal assets such as their home, cars and bank savings. Libel, Slander, and Defamation of Character are the torts that could land you in court. 

Defamation is a written or spoken injury to an individual or organization’s reputation. Libel is the written act of defamation, and slander is the oral act of defamation. A defense to a defamation lawsuit is “Truth”. Example if the lady that told me that two men were found stuck together and were caught by the wife of one of the men could prove that it really happened she would be found not guilty of slander. You would need a lawyer to represent you in court and it may cost you $50,000.00 to prove your innocence.  

My best advice to people who like to spread rumors is to be careful. Ironically the people that usually spread rumors are judgment proof. That means they don’t have anything that you could recover against if you won a lawsuit. People with large bank accounts are aware of the liability of spreading rumors. So for all my readers that hear rumors floating around just remember that if you pass it on the victim of the rumor could one day own your house, car and bank account. So zip up your lips and be cool! 

Greg Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by visiting his web page at www.greggriffin.com