You have inevitably come across someone, at some point in your life, who has probably said something unpleasant about you and you tend to ignore them. However, if those unpleasant remarks/comments have spiralled into something horrible that has damaged people’s perception of your character causing serious problems to your quality of life or even career/business, you would probably have to consider whether you need to take legal action to stop this.
Collecting evidence
In our previous blog, we discussed the elements required for proving defamation. As a reminder, “defamation of character” occurs when someone makes a false statement about you or your business and that statement harms the reputation of you or your business. To prove you have been defamed, you will need some evidence that can be acquired by:
- Collecting proof of defamatory statements/comments, like saving the relevant documents/videos or taking screenshots of them on social media, emails, etc. If the defendant has blocked you on social media, you may need to find someone to do the screenshots for you;
- In cases where the defamatory statements/comments are posted online, to evaluate their impact, you may record the amount and the type of views/comments/impressions that they have attracted;
- In cases where the defamatory statements/comments are affecting your career/business, you may save the termination letter/bank statements/reports to show that serious harm and loss of income/revenue have been caused to you; and
- In cases where the defamatory statements/comments were not made in a permanent form, e.g. verbally, you may contact individuals who heard them and ask if they would be prepared to be your factual witness.
Seeking legal advice
With the evidence that you have gathered, you can seek legal advice to determine whether or not you have a case against the defendant. We will review the evidence and advise you on the merits of the case as well as the next steps to be taken.
You must bear in mind that you only have one year from the defamatory statement/comment being made to bring a claim against the defendant. This means the sooner you can gather the evidence and seek legal advice, the better.
Pre-action steps
Subject to the legal advice, here are the general steps that you would need to take before issuing a defamation claim against the defendant:
Letter before action
You can instruct solicitors to draft a letter before action to the defendant. The letter should set out your case in detail, including the publication of the defamatory statements, your interpretation of them, how they are inaccurate, and how they are causing serious harm to you.
Defendant’s response
The defendant may accept the claim (fully or partially), request further information, or reject the claim with reasons in support of his/her decision. You then need to review the defendant’s response and decide whether to respond accordingly.
Alternative dispute resolution
Based on the defendant’s response, you may consider alternative dispute resolution, like mediation/arbitration. The success of it allows the matter to be resolved without bringing the matter to the Court, which potentially means that parties would be incurring fewer costs.
If the matter remains unresolved following pre-action correspondence and alternative dispute resolution, the last resort is to issue a claim in Court against the defendant. Due to the complexity of the legal procedure, it will be in your best interests to seek legal advice on issuing a claim and sustaining it at the Court. Failure to comply with the Court rules may have serious consequences, including your case being struck out and/or adverse orders of costs being made against you.
How can Nelsons help
Ronny Tang is an Associate in our expert Dispute Resolution team, specialising in defamation claims, contentious probate and inheritance claims, Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 claims, Equality Act 2010 claims and Protection From Harassment 1997 claims.
If you need any advice concerning the subject discussed in this article, please do not hesitate to contact Ronny or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.
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