Petrini

I. BACKGROUND

A. Complaint In March 2022, Petrini filed a lawsuit against Defendants. The complaint set forth causes of action for: (1) defamation per se; (2) coerced self-publication – defamation; (3) commercial disparagement – trade libel; and (4) intentional infliction of emotional distress. Petrini alleged the following: Scott Simon is a licensed marriage and family therapist who has been working as a vocational expert for more than 30 years. Petrini began working for Simon in August 2016 as an office manager. She performed administrative tasks, in addition to proofreading, editing, and issuing vocational evaluation reports for injured workers to be used in workers’ compensation and civil litigation cases. Petrini applied to graduate school in early 2017 to enter the industry as a professional clinician and provide vocational expert work for workers’ compensation and civil litigation cases. She earned a master’s degree in health services administration with a double major in rehabilitation from the University of North Texas. Petrini’s employment contract contained a non-competition clause, but Petrini refused to sign the contract and Simon reduced Petrini’s hours.…