Along with being a teaching psychologist comes the inevitable request for letters of recommendation from students who are applying for admission to graduate school, a fellowship or award, or employment.
Some letters are a joy to write.
Others, for the student who is marginally qualified or who is more blatantly deficient, raise the intimidating specter of a defamation lawsuit for the writer who wants to give an honest appraisal of the candidate. Here are some points to note that should decrease your risk of being liable. Although there are subtle variations in the law from one state to another, generally the tort of libel occurs when false information that damages a person's reputation is written and disseminated to a third party, with some fault on the part of the writer. The same information, spoken to another, is slander. Both libel and slander are defamatory.