Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

You may have a claim for defamation, provided the facts meet all the elements of that claim.

First, the statements must be asserted as FACT, and not OPINION. The exact words used are very important to help determine that. People are entitled to express their opinions and are guaranteed that right under the Constitution. Some statements appear to be asserted as fact, but when taken in context with other words would then appear to be opinion or a joke. In that case, you need to evaluate how a reasonable listener or reader would interpret the statement and, most importantly, whether they would believe them to be true.

The stated "facts" must be false. Truth is a complete defense (in this case, I assume they are false).

The person making the statement must know it to be false, or be making it in reckless disregard for the truth.

The statement must be published, meaning that a third party or parties must hear or read it. Thus, a private email communication between the person making the statement and you would not qualify. On the other hand, a statement posted in a forum or a blog would arguably qualify because others can read it. The tricky part of web based statements is when people use screen names or user names so that people reading or listening to the statement are not capable of knowing it is meant to be about you. If a third party cannot identify the statement as being about you, then you probably don't have a defamation case.

Lastly, you must have quantifiable damages. In this case, the statement is made about your sexual preferences and accuses you of engaging in a crime. These types of statements are categorized as libel per se or slander per se. In these "per se" categories, there is a presumption that you will suffer at least nominal damages because they are deemed offensive to your reputation as a matter of law (so long as they are false).

If you meet all of the above criteria, you have a viable defamation case. However, what is it worth? Without quantifiable damages, maybe it's worth a couple of thousand dollars, but will likely cost you anywhere from $10,000-$40,000 in legal fees to prosecute it in NYS Supreme Court.

Therefore, without damages that you can both quantify and prove, this may be suitable for small claims court, where you can keep your expenses to a minimum, but still achieve some justice by winning nominal damages of anywhere from $500-$3,000.