Defamation Lawyers

Defamation lawyers are legal practitioners who are experienced with defamation laws and defamation proceedings in Australia.

If you have had defamatory content published about you which has caused damage to your personal or business reputation, then you may be entitled to claim damages. 

Defamation is the publication of a false factual statement which harms the reputation of a person or small business.

This statement is published with either negligence or malice.

To bring a civil litigation action for defamation as a company, the company must have fewer than 10 employees, or must be against a natural person, and must satisfy three (3) requirements:

1. There was a publication (either online or otherwise); and
2. The publication named you personally (or strong implication); and
3. The publication was defamatory.

The publication is defamatory if it:

1. Lowers the person/businesses estimation in the eyes of right-thinking, or reasonable members of the society generally; and/or
2. Put’s the person/business in the position of being shunned and avoided; and/or
3. Injures the reputation of the person/business by exposing it to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or being though less of.

An action for defamation is easily made out in most cases, but success is largely dependent on several available defences open to a defendant.

Defences to Defamation

There are several possible defences open to the defendant:

1. Defence of justification
2. Defence of contextual truth
3. Defence of absolute privilege
4. Defence for publication of public documents
5. Defences of fair report of proceedings of public concern
6. Defence of qualified privilege for provision of certain information
7. Defences of honest opinion
8. Defence of innocent dissemination
9. Defence of triviality

Publication of Defamatory Content

A publication can include things like online reviews (Google, Facebook, etc), Facebook posts, YouTube, Twitter posts, songs, blog posts, SMS text messages, radio shows, poems, television shows, photographs, paintings, Instagram posts, emails, novels and books, newspaper articles, internet articles, Google search results, cartoons, magazines, and more.

As well a there being a publication, the publication must contain defamatory imputations.

Defamation Lawyers – Imputation

An imputation is a claim contained in the publication that the person has done something undesirable, or is an accusation of some sort.

For the published imputation to be defamatory it must cause ordinary, reasonable people in society to think less of the person/business.

There are two types of defamatory imputation; defamatory imputations can arise:

1. False innuendo – derived from the natural and ordinary meaning of words; or
2. True innuendo – derived from a publication is harmless at first glance and those with knowledge of the facts see the defamatory meaning.

Defamation Lawyers – Meaning of Defamatory

The Courts have given guidance in relation to deciding what constitutes defamatory content.  They include:

1. Whether ordinary reasonable members of the community would think less of the plaintiff; and/or
2. Something which brings the plaintiff into hatred, contempt or ridicule; and/or
3. A publication which exposes another to ridicule is defamatory; and/or
4. A publication which conveys a meaning that was likely to cause ordinary, reasonable members of society to think less of the plaintiff.

For example, in Kelly v Levick [2016] QMC 11 the Court said:

In the present case it is alleged by the Plaintiff that the ordinary and natural meaning of the words “June turned out to be a thieving, lying, money crazed bitch who screwed me out of nearly 3 million rand – may she rot in Hell” was that she was a person that: i. is of bad character; ii. commits criminal offences; iii. cannot be trusted; and iv. suffers from a mental disorder.

Defences to a Defamation Claim

There are a number of defences to a claim for defamation, namely:

1. Defence of justification
2. Defences of honest opinion
3. Defences of fair report of proceedings of public concern
4. Defence of triviality
5. Defence of qualified privilege for provision of certain information
6. Defence of innocent dissemination
7. Defence of contextual truth
8. Defence of absolute privilege
9. Defence for publication of public documents

There is a long and varied case law in relation to the defences for defamation.

The most common of these defences is that the imputations are substantially true.  If the imputations published are provably substantially true, then it is not defamation.

Contact our defamation lawyers for more information in relation to defences to defamation claims.

The Defamation Process

Part 3 of the Defamation Act allows the publisher of the defamatory imputations to make amends.

The process in the Defamation Act says:

1. The aggrieved person gives the publisher a concerns notice; then
2. The publisher makes an offer to make amends within 28 days after receiving the concerns notice.

The concerns notice must be in writing and informs the publisher of the defamatory imputations.

Then the publisher can offer to make amends by:

1. Telling other people that the imputations are defamatory; and
2. Offering to publish, or join in publishing, a reasonable correction of the matter; and
3. Making other offers, such as – issuing an apology, or paying compensation; and
4. Offering to pay the expenses reasonably incurred by the aggrieved person.

If the offer to make amends is accepted then the matter cannot continue to trial.

If the offer to make amends is not accepted, then the matter may proceed to Court for a decision.

Whether you are the publisher of alleged defamatory content, or you are have been defamed by a publication, our dedicated defamation lawyers can help you.