Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Potential Defemantion of Character

Well, the bad news is -- anyone can sue for just about anything. Whether they can win is a different story. Because you apologized and took a vow of silence, perhaps it will be overlooked. You know your ex- way better than I would, so I can't even venture a guess as to what he would do. Certainly, your retraction should go a long way toward calming any bad feelings.

Re: Potential Defemantion of Character

As Mr. Cohen points out, the question isn't whether you can be sued. Instead, you need to worry about whether you will be sued and, if so, whether you will win. Mr. Cohen's answer dealt with the first of these issues, and I will address the second.

Defamation must involve a false statement of fact to a third party. When you repeated what your former partner had actually said you were making truthful statements. Any commentary you made about your ex would probably be statements of opinion, and opinions can never be defamatory. What seem like statements of opinion sometimes are based upon implicit statements of fact, so there is a chance that your comments would be defamatory; without knowing more about what you said I cannot give you a more definite answer.

Assuming that you did defame your ex, apologizing after the fact and promising to be silent in the future would have no legal effect. There is no legal wrong in the world that can be cured by apologizing (though an apology can minimize the amount of damage and thereby make a lawsuit less likely) or by promising not to repeat the wrongful conduct. If you are sued the question will be whether your statements were defamatory and not whether you will do it again or whether you apologized later.