Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Washington

Re: Libel

The question should not be whether he can sue for libel, becuase the answer to that is that there is no way usually to stop just about anyone from suing for just about anything. The question is can he win. Truth is generally a defence to libel so if everything you said was true you should have a pretty strong case. But, this person may be able to do something with the fact that you stated that even if you hear any "unsubstantiated" rumors or any "talk detrimental to XYZ" XYZ will not be able to coach. Why would you get rid of someone based on unsubstantiated (which means without any evidence) rumors? Why would you get rid of someone just because one person says something detrimental about him? In other words, is this really what you meant to say? Because if someone, for instance, says XYZ is not a terribly good coach, you have said you would get rid of him. Or if someone just makes up a rumor about XYZ without any substantiation whatsoever, you have said you would get rid of him.

I think this is a perfect example of a situation where you should have contacted a lawyer BEFORE you did this. Legal costs are nearly always way less before a lawsuit or a problem arises than after.