the extremists/ be careful

[Martha Rosett Lutz]

"What if a person said "in my _opinion_, the person is paranoic and
psychotic".  Would that be still considered slander by qualifying it as
my own 'opinion'?"
 
Good question (although still far removed from leps); my connection to
lawyers is less direct (in-laws only) than my connection to doctors (an
older relative in my family, plus marriage, plus in-laws) so I can't speak
with any authority on that.
 
My best guess is that as long as you clearly state it as Your Opinion (i.e.
a personally-held belief based in emotion rather than in fact, and with no
proof) you are not liable for slander.
 
However, you do run the risk of being misquoted, and it would then be up to
you to establish that you were really only giving your opinion.  If, by
mischance, someone's employment status was affected by your remark, you
would definitely be *vulnerable* to being held legally responsible (you
might get lucky, and not be held responsible, but it could depend on who
got involved).  A person employed in child care, for example, might be
particularly vulnerable to slander regarding their mental health.  A remark
that got back to the child-care worker's employer could affect the worker's
job.  An employer would have to be extremely careful to act on evidence,
but would at the same time be obligated to seek such evidence if there were
any possibility of mental instability.  (I think we're all clever enough to
see the multi-dimensional ramifications of this example without me chewing
up more list space!)
 
Meanwhile, I realize I forgot to sign my last note to the list.  Sorry!  I
was writing about Fabre when I was invaded by five children, not all of
them mine.  Very distracting.  I fed them chocolate and shooed some of them
into the basement (where they are building a model airplane of their own
design) and after a while things were quiet again, but I lost my train of
thought . . .
 
In Stride,
Martha Rosett Lutz
 
a.k.a. old lady sprinter in Iowa, where the only butterflies all week will
be the ones 'in' my stomach when I line up for a 400 meter race this
Saturday . . .
 
 
 
 
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