Legal Question in Business Law in Massachusetts

Defamation Liability

Greetings from Massachusetts!

I operate a research company obtaining information from employees about their places of employment. The work we do is very similar to that of the Best Places to Work Institute - which conducts the annual Best Places to Work surveys in many cities nationwide.

Here's my question...

We recently started asking respondents where they are employed. We'd like to include a list in the marketing material for our research report stating that we had, for example, 10,000 survey respondents some of who work at Fortune 500 companies such as XYZ, etc. etc.

In the publication itself, we NEVER single out a specific organization (for good or bad reasons.) So, is merely printing a company's name without their permission even though we aren't printing anything specific regarding their organizations grounds for any kind of law suit?

Thanks!


Asked on 4/22/08, 9:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: Defamation Liability

Your question is a bit too complicated for a complete answer here.

1. Truth is a defense to defamation.

2. Publication of a companies name for purposes of describing research is not illegal.

3. There are many nuances to what you want to do and I suggest you go over what you publish in detail with counsel not to change what your are doing but to make sure you have sufficient protections and to look at the language you are using.

Companies rarely sue people for saying they are the best places to work. They do however take umbridge to negative reviews.

If you wish to discuss this further please do not hesitate to contact me.

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Answered on 4/23/08, 11:25 am


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