How to avoid being sued for defamation, and PR strategies for defendants and plaintiffs .
When I returned from China to the UK, I was sent nasty legal letters by a company for defamation - luckily I wasn't about to be intimidated, had good legal counsel and some experience in defending myself. In this day and age of lawyers and social media, it's important to know your rights as both someone defending yourself and making legitimate claims against those who have done wrong.
In this episode I'll talk about the different aspects of defamation and how I have worked with clients to overcome defamatory comments made by errant shareholders.
Defamation (sometimes known as calumny, vilification, libel, slander or traducement) is the oral or written communication of a false statement about another that unjustly harms their reputation and usually constitutes a tort or crime.[1] In several countries, including South Korea[2] and Sweden,[3] as well as the U.S. state of Louisiana,[4] communicating a true statement can also be considered defamation.
Under common law, to constitute defamation, a claim must generally be false and must have been made to someone other than the person defamed.[5] Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.[6] In the United States, false light laws protect against statements which are not technically false but are misleading.[7]
Melania Trump filed a defamation action in the New York state commercial court and in the UK High Court against the Daily Mail over allegations that she previously worked as an escort. Ms. Trump claimed damages in the sum of $150m.
The Mail later retracted the statement, published an apology and settled the case for $3m. The case was subject to much media attention, being covered by the BBC, the Guardian, Independent and ABC News.
I touch on points for all business owners to consider when allowing their staff to speak on behalf of the Company, and when it may be better to stay away from social media.
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