Defamation law aims to strike a balance between allowing the distribution of information, ideas, and opinions, and protecting people from having lies told about them.
It's a complicated area of law. If you have more questions, check your local law library or the Defamation Law Section of Nolo's website for more about the First Amendment and freedom of speech, the rights and responsibilities of the press, invasion of privacy, hate speech, and Internet speech.
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Meet the Editors. Defamation Law Made Simple. Learn the basics of slander and libel -- the rules about who can say what without getting into legal hot water. If you believe you are have been "defamed," to prove it you usually have to show there's been a statement that is all of the following: published false injurious unprivileged Let's look at each of these defamation claim elements in detail.
Public Officials and Figures Have More to Prove The public has a right to criticize the people who govern them, so the least protection from defamation is given to public officials.
Personal Injury Law. In that case, the defendants wrote that "most of the [Neiman-Marcus] sales staff are fairies" and that some of the company's saleswomen were "call girls. Applying New York and Texas law, the court held that the salesmen had a valid cause of action, but the saleswomen did not. Even though the statement referred to "most of" the salesmen, without naming names or specifying further, the statement could be understood to refer to any individual member of this small group.
The group of saleswomen, however, was so large that a statement that some of them were "call girls" would not be understood as referring to any individual member of the group.
As to the second exception to the rule against group libel -- when circumstances point to a particular individual -- courts have allowed defamation claims where the statement is facially broad, but the context makes it clear that it referred to the plaintiff. For example, Bill Blogger may be able to claim defamation based on the statement "all bloggers who attended the most recent city council meeting payed bribes to the mayor," where Bill is the only blogger who attended the meeting and readers will therefore understand the statement as being a thinly veiled indictment of him.
A company or organization can be a defamation plaintiff. In fact, the largest jury verdict every awarded in a libel case came in a case brought by a business plaintiff. Note that each state decides what is required to establish defamation, so you should review your state's specific law in the State Law: Defamation section of this guide for more information.
A person may claim defamation by a literary or dramatic work intended as fictional if the characters in the work resemble actual persons so closely that it is reasonable for readers or viewers to believe that the character is intended to portray the person in question.
A disclaimer that the work is fiction and does not depict any persons living or dead will not automatically foreclose a defamation claim, but it is still a good idea and may be used as evidence as to whether readers or viewers would be reasonable in concluding that it is a depiction of the plaintiff. Subscribe to our content! However, an individual politician, public servant or local councillor can sue if a statement refers to the way in which they personally carry out public functions.
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Defamation and your rights Defamation and your rights: Contacts What is defamation? Back Georgia. Back Indiana. Back Kentucky. Back Massachusetts. Back Pennsylvania. Back Tennessee. Back Practice Areas. Back Car Accidents. Back Personal Injury. Back Medical Malpractice. Back Negligence. Back Workplace. Back Business Litigation. Back Civil Rights. Back Consumer. Back Defective Products.
Back Insurance Disputes. Back Mass Arbitration. Back Mass Tort. Back Toxics and Environmental. Back About. Back Resources. Types of Defamation of Character There are two primary types of defamation of character: Slander and libel.
Necessary Conditions for Proving Defamation Defamation laws vary by state. False Statements Even if someone makes a statement that hurts your reputation, it is not defamatory if it is true. Injurious Statements To be classified as defamatory, a statement must be injurious.
For defamation cases, speech communicated in any of the following ways will qualify as being published: Social media Radio Books Newspapers Magazines Television Gossip Speeches And more Even loud conversations in public may count as published statements if a third party overhears them. Unprivileged Statements There are certain instances in which you are unable to sue, even if the offending statement was false and injurious. Actual Damages This is a type of damages that is intended to compensate the victim for the financial losses caused by the defamation.
Common examples of actual damages include: Lost or missed wages Decreased earning capacity Lost business prospects A knowledgeable attorney can calculate the value of actual damages in a defamation case.
General Damages This category of damages is intended to compensate the victim for the non-monetary harms that they suffered. Common examples of general damages include: Mental anguish Pain and suffering Shame Humiliation Disgrace Ostracization The value of the general damages in a specific case will be decided by the judge or jury. Client Testimonial Videos.
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