Have you been defamed?

In NSW defamation cases proceed in accordance with common law principles and the Defamation Act 2005.

The general feeling about this area of law is that Plaintiffs still have a reasonable case if they can demonstrate that they were defamed.

Defendants still have statutory and common law defences such as truth, and especially in the case of media outlets “ qualified privilege” but a genuinely defamed Plaintiff may still have an arguable case.

This situation is unlike the United States where the absence of malice rule applies which made it almost impossible to successfully sue a media outlet. The requirement was to show the media outlet knew the story was a lie and went with it with malicious intent. This is a very high threshold.

This rule however may have been somewhat relaxed in the US when Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News in defamation and Fox settled for a record sum of $787.5 million.

There may be many reasons why Fox settled a case where the law seemed to be in their favour, but they nevertheless settled.

The law in NSW does not create such a high threshold as it does in the USA so if you generally believe you have been defamed on Facebook, in the media or anywhere else for that matter do not be afraid to seek legal advice.

John Andriano of our office can assist in advising on defamation issues so ring us on 02 97265700 or complete our contact form https://www.andrianolawyers.au