There are a number of legal elements required to prove a slander case. The most difficult of these elements is usually the requirement that the Plaintiff prove specific damages to his or her reputation as a result of the statement. However, there are certain defamatory statements that are so egregious that the law presumes the statements to be defamatory. These statements are “slander per se.”
Here’s a recent example from a Connecticut Court. Patient #1 goes to an emergency room. Patient #2 informs an emergency room nurse to help patient #1 who is moaning and in pain. Nurse tells patient #2 “he (patient #1) is only here for drugs.”
Since obtaining or attempting to obtain a controlled substance (drugs) is a crime in which the offender can be fined or sent to prison the court found that nurse’s statements to be slander per se.
Had the nurse made the statement directly to patient #1 without anyone else hearing the statement there would be no slander since slander requires that the statement be heard by at least one other person.