advice please, False claims of bullying in the workplace

[Pusillanimous]

You are only likely to get compensation for defamation if (a) it affects your livelihood, or (b) was published in the public domain. It is likely to be ruled (as with disability claims) that you should have taken your case to the Employment Tribunal (if you did, you could then call your two witnesses). The sort of people who win money for loss of livelihood due to defamation are people like Posh & Becks who sued someone who dissed them over one of their boutiques in France.

[Pusillanimous]

altobelli, you might know the accusation is false, and the OP knows it's false. However, before successfully suing for defamation, it would need to be establish that the complainant was being malicious. Even then, employers can - and do- successfully plead that their response to such an allegation, even if wrongful, was a reasonable one. All they need to show is that they "investigated".

 

People often talk of "defamation of character", but truth is, the OP is more likely to win an ET than a "defamation" suit. There was a recent case where a young banker accidentally barged into a woman he had been in dispute with. He was sacked, despite pleading it was an accident. He lost his case in the ET as they said, the employers response was in the range of "reasonable".

 

Fiery passion is all very well, but not if it spent on hopeless quests, such as "defamation of character" suits arising from a dispute at work. The ET is by far the best bet for justice.

 

The box falling onthe complainant's head may well have been an accident, but the complainant might well have taken a different POV, even if wrong.