My potential employer contacted my former employer for references. My former employer said some terrible things about me, most of which are not true.
Defamation is the legal term for slanderous spoken remarks and libelous written statements.
To claim defamation occurred, the remarks, whether verbal or written, must be untrue. For example, it would be permissible for a manager to gripe to the human-resources department or tell inquiring prospective employers about beliefs that an employee had been lazy or slow to learn. In addition, managers are permitted to comment, when warranted, about individual worker's abilities, performance or attitudes. As one court summarized, the judicial system doesn't wish to silence those having an interest or a legal, moral and social duty from passing along information to those with a legitimate reason to know. That is why courts routinely protect the expression of subjective opinions about work-related characteristics to prospective employers or to others within the same workplace.