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I would never give negative feedback about a former employee to anyone ever. I have no guarantee that that information is private, and they could sue me for defamation or a whole host of other things if they found out, especially if it ended up causing them not to get a job. That's real damages.

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If you give 'good' feedback that turns out to be wrong in some sense (or it turns out that someone thinks you exaggerated positively), and they hired someone who caused them material damage... would that scenario prevent you from giving good feedback?

But one is considered defamation/libel and can see you in court (at least in the UK) - the other is a slight inconvenience to a company you don't even work at.

Thanks for sharing. We allow references to decline a request for this reason. Also, by pulling references earlier in the process, we mitigate the causation between the feedback and a negative outcome.

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