Personal Injury: My former employer is sabotaging my job efforts by giving negative job references to prospective employers. Can I sue for libel?

Generally, statements made by a former employer to inquiries from a prospective employer can be made without fear of being sued later. However, protection will be lost if there are any ancillary suggestions, inferences, innuendoes, etc. that lead a prospective employer to attach a different meaning to what is said or to believe something misleading or untruthful about the employee. The difficulty is proving that the statements were inaccurate and wrong.