I used to work in a very niche corner of my field, maybe 20-30 companies do this kind of work in my country, and earlier this year I was laid off “because you aren't quite where we wanted you to be after a year despite you having gone through four managers in a year and never having the time to actually learn from anyone above you even though we said we would set this up for you.“
I am 99% sure that the real reason I was “laid off” was purely because my most recent boss didn't like me and wanted to get rid of me (and two other people a few weeks later with the same reasons). My coworkers and the people I actually worked with on a regular basis were all in shock since I was so busy and did so much for them.
Since then, I've applied to over one-hundred jobs in this field and haven't gotten responses from a single one of them. Recruiters/headhunters/career counselors all say that my resume is “pretty much perfect” and no one can think of any other reason that I wouldn't be getting responses. My hail mary guess is that my old boss has been shit talking me to other companies as he is an incredibly petty person and “everyone knows everyone” in this field. When he took over for my prior boss, he talked shit about her with our entire staff for weeks and would constantly complain about things we did to the rest of the team on a regular basis, so he has a history of it already.
Is there any way at all that I could confirm that he's the one who's been causing my prolonged unemployment without getting legalities involved? I don't want to involve any legal means until I have hard-proof that he's been causing me damages.