School district appeals defamation verdict

A panel of Nevada Supreme Court justices heard arguments Wednesday over whether the Clark County School District defamed the reputation of Virtual Education Software when school officials labeled its classes as too easy.

Teachers took its computer-based classes as credit toward their professional advancement and salary increases.

After the district decided in 2002 it no longer would honor the credit, Virtual Education Software, based in Spokane, Wash., filed a lawsuit in Clark County District Court. A jury awarded the company $340,622 in damages, court fees and other costs after a trial in 2007.

In front of a three-member panel in Las Vegas, Scott Greenberg, an attorney for the school district, argued against the verdict and said that in defamation cases, "context is incredibly important."

Greenberg said school officials, who communicated through e-mail, were commenting only on whether the classes were worthy of making teachers eligible for raises up to $2,000.

Because the comments were directed at the classes, school officials were not questioning the company itself, he said.

Christopher Rose, representing Virtual Education, told Justices James Hardesty, Michael Douglas and Ron Parraguire the district could have made this argument at trial, but instead, "they didn't offer a shred of evidence. They didn't call a single witness."

Referring to the facts of the case, such as the comments made by school officials and supporting evidence from universities that used the course software, Rose said, "You can't box this into a product disparagement case."

Rose also said the trial judge, Valorie Vega, was "very careful" in deciding what statements alleged to be defamatory would be allowed in court.

Virtual Education won a judgment, but the company originally had asked for more than $1 million in damages.

The justices took the case under advisement.