Retaliation is where an employer takes an adverse employment action against an employee for engaging in some activity protected by law.  Defamation is where a person communicates or "publishes" untrue derrogatory information about the plaintiff to a third person and that communication injures the plaintiff.  Please see the links at right to subpages discussing retaliation and defamation separately, anti-SLAPP suits, as well as defamation specifically in the U-5 FINRA context.

To establish a prima facie case for retaliation, an employee must show that he engaged in a protected activity, his employer subjected him to adverse employment action, and there is a causal link between the protected activity and the employer's action.  See Wrighten v. Metropolitan Hospitals, Inc. (9th Cir.1984) 726 F.2d 1346, 1354; Fisher v. San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, 214 Cal.App.3d at 614.

Defamation damages are presumed when the defamation falls into certain categories, including defamation regarding a person's employment, business or profession and defamation regarding criminal convictions or activities.