Can you publicly defend a decision to terminate someone?

Generally, we advise employers to keep the reasons for an employee's termination confidential. There's usually little reason to risk a defamation or misrepresentation claim or make an ex-employee any angrier than need be. But sometimes your explanation can be a privileged act.

Jaywalking leads to firing

Frederick Theodore Rall is a political cartoonist and blogger whose work mainly appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Rall claimed that he was arrested for jaywalking by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 2001. He said that aside from being innocent of jaywalking, he was thrown against a wall and abused and roughed up by a police officer before he was issued a ticket.

Rall filed a complaint with the LAPD claiming there were several witnesses who were angry about his mistreatment as well as recordings that backed up his story. According to him, the LAPD dismissed his complaint without notifying him.

In May 2015, the Times printed a piece about the adverse effects of costly jaywalking fines on poor and working-class Angelinos. Shortly after that, the paper published Rall's cartoon and blog mocking the LAPD for its jaywalking policy. In the blog, he related the story of his LAPD jaywalking experience described above.

Tape tells the tale