Can You Be Sued for Written Employee Recommendations?

ServiusCensus asks: "I have been asked to provide a written rather than the more normal verbal reference for a someone I used to work with. Verbal references seem to be the norm, they work well because people are more willing to tell the truth informally than they are to write it down. I want to know what problems I might get into if I recommend someone but they turn out to be a bad match for the company? I don't want some lawyer to come looking for me one dark night."

Comments

Re:Wrong place to ask, wrong question.

[sigwinch]

...it's illegal to record phone conversations without mutual consent.

Actually it depends on the jurisdiction. For intrastate calls in the U.S. it varies quite a bit. Interstate calls may be recorded (last I heard -- it may have changed). Other countries vary. Also remember that phone calls can be routed through multiple states and nations, even if the participants are in the same place, which makes them interjurisdiction calls.

Unless you really know the law and have perfect control over the telephone system that is used, the only safe assumption is that the call can be legally recorded.

from lawguru.com

[Karth]

it looks like this lawyer from lawguru has a real answer: If you want to avoid all sorts of possible legal stupidity, stick to short, factual, and mostly useless information.

http://www.lawguru.com/cgi/bbs/mesg.cgi?i=778167 01 8