Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: defamation

You should bring this up in the Family Law case. Losing your job will only result in a decrease in her support. Causing you to lose your job will be even worse in the eyes of the court.

Re: defamation

One of the elements of defamation is falsity. If what she said about you is true, then it wasn't defamatory.

You could conceivably have a claim for invasion of privacy or for interference with prospective economic advantage, but that seems unlikely. You haven't provided enough facts to say whether such claims might succeed.

Re: defamation

You might have a cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress and interference with prospective business advantage. You can not claim blackmail ecause she was not asking for money from you, jsut getting back at you. While you probably will not win, you might want to file a motion for sanctions in the divorce matter in that she is trying to use extra-judicial methods to win her issue or punish you for winning. It would alert the court for the next time she moves for an increase in payments.

See if you can get out of being fired. Was the original termination something that could be described as not being a firing [they gave you the chance to be fired or leave, you won an unemplyment benefits claim, the firing violated public policy so was voidable, etc.] point out to them that the possibility of their finding a better employee is not that great since the quality of employees seems to decrease as time goes by.