By Quinn Ross, Special to Bullet News
Recently, a corporate client of The Ross Firm heard some disturbing news. One of its former employees was running around defaming the corporate client to competitors and the client’s suppliers.
The corporate client came to The Ross Firm wanting to know if we could shut down the potentially damaging libel and slander.
Within two days, a team of lawyers at The Ross Firm had drafted material and put it squarely in front of the first available sitting Judge. 
The material asked the Superior Court Judge to grant an injunction that would, in effect, gag the disgruntled employee until such time as a full trial could be held, or a satisfactory resolution could be worked out.
But that is not all The Ross Firm sought on behalf of its client.
The legal team was concerned that material filed with the court on behalf of its client contained sensitive information that if learned by others, could affect the client’s competitive edge.
With that in mind, The Ross Firm also asked a Superior Court Judge to seal the court file, so that only the parties involved in the court action could have access to the file.
And the result?
The court ordered the employee to cease defaming his former employer and to honour the confidentiality agreement he had entered into while still an employee, which brought a quick end to further damage.
The Court also ordered that the court file be sealed, thus barring any competitor from taking advantage of the court action to gain inside information about our client’s business.
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Quinn Ross lays out in plain language the facts, arguments and decisions from real court case affecting the lives of the citizens of Huron County in his column that will appear on Mondays.
He is one of eight lawyers at The Ross Firm, a Huron County law firm. Quinn practises in the areas of real estate, corporate/commercial law and estate law. He also has broad experience in criminal, administrative and civil litigation where he has appeared before the Ontario Court of Justice, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Divisional Court of Ontario, the Court of Appeal for Ontario and various administrative tribunals.
Over the years, in addition to the practice of law, Quinn has been involved in numerous diverse activities, including Southwest Executive Director of the Ontario Bar Association, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Huron Perth Community Legal Clinic and Vice-President of the Alzheimer’s Society of Huron County.
He holds the degree of Juris Doctor from the University of Western Ontario.
Follow The Ross Firm on Facebook or on Twitter, @TheRossFirmPC
2 Comments on "Sound Reason: Shutting down libel, slander when disgruntled employee bad mouths the boss"
Why not just gag everyone.
So hiding “sensitive” information that would damage the client’s reputation, means hiding truths?