Someone keeps calling me and hanging up so I called them a curse name. Can they sue me for this if they taped it?

Answer 1

I don't think so. You may be offending that person, but you can not be arrested for calling someone a crazy bitch, it is called freedom of speech. You, on the other hand can file harassment charges against them if you ever find out who they are; next time you should record the call.

Freedom of speech is not the relevant issue in this case:

If they taped your outburst for evidence in a civil case, all you need is to get your own phone records from the phone company as evidence of this person's harassment.

Slander is making false or damaging statements about another person. Your offending statement was made, I'm assuming, anonymously since you said it to an unknown person from your own telephone, while your privacy was under attack by that phone call(s). In other words, you did not disseminate the statement; you didn't label any specific person by name; you uttered the statement under duress as evidenced by your phone records.

By the way, have you reported the harassment to your phone company (preferably in writing to customer service). The phone company may not want to or be able to do anything about it, but it's always best to have an official record of the harassment and a record that you did report it.