Defamation of Character Lawsuits Can Count as Personal Injury Suits
Posted on: 23 June 2021
When people think about personal injury law and the lawyers who practice it, you might think about physical injuries like those gotten at work or in a car accident. However, personal injury law covers more than just physical injuries. It also includes things like defamation of character. If you think that you have been a victim of defamation of character, then you should see a personal injury lawyer about your situation in order to see if you have a working case.
Defamation of Character
Defamation of character happens when one person says something about another person which causes a negative impact on that person's life. It could be an adverse reaction on their personal life or on their business and/or professional life. The statement can be vocalized, which would be slander. If it is written down, the statement would be libel. However, not every negative statement made about someone rises to the level of defamation of character, it has to meet certain requirements. An attorney can help you figure out if your situation meets all of these requirements.
Veracity
One of the requirements needed for a statement to meet the level of defamation is that it has to be demonstrably untrue. It isn't enough for the statement to be something negative, because people are allowed to have a negative opinion, it has to be an outright lie.
Damaging
The statement also has to somehow damage the person it's about. By damage, it has to be something that is able to be measured. For example, if a person has lost a job because of a negative statement made about them, that would be measurable damage. It would be the same if the result was a loss of sales or the end of a personal relationship.
Published
In this case, published means that the negative statement has to be made public. In the case of slander, that would mean that the person making the statement has to have told at least one other person. A libelous statement has to be written down and sent to another person. There are some things that may be exempt when it comes to written statements, including a private note sent from one person to another.
Privilege
There are some statements that are covered by privilege. Those statements cannot be on the basis of defamation of character suit. One example of a privileged statement would be something that is said in court.
If you think that you have a case about defamation, you need to make sure that are handling it correctly. You need to see a personal injury attorney. For more information, check out the site.
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