Defamation Act

The Defamation Act (1996) is a piece of primary parliamentary legislation which codifies and defines defamation in law. The Act’s long title: ‘An Act to amend the law of defamation and to amend the law of limitation with respect to actions for defamation or malicious falsehood’ is fairly self-explanatory.

The Defamation Act is most significant in the following respects:

• An offer of amends, created by sections 2-4, creates a legal defence for defamation. However, in order to rely on this defence the defendant must apologise (in public) to the claimant, publish a correction and pay compensation along with the claimant’s legal costs. It may be difficult to distinguish this defence from an admission of guilt, but the difference lies in the lack of admission that the defendant knew (or ought to have known) that the information was defamatory
• The Defamation Act also allows individual members of parliament to waive privilege. This seemingly unrelated matter is found in the Act because the court’s inability to investigate privileged information prevented MPs from bringing claims for defamation
• Reports of court proceedings, which could be seen as defamatory as they describe (publish) allegations against individuals whilst knowing those allegations may not be true, are completely privileged. In other words, section 14 of the Act does not allow a party whose reputation was injured as a result of a published court report to sue the court report publisher, unless the report itself was not fair and reasonable
• The limitation period for bringing a defamation claim is one year, but the court may allow a claim to be brought after the period has passed if not doing so will be unfair to the claimant

If you have been accused of defamation, or have been defamed, it is advisable to see a specialist solicitor. The court expenses relating to defamation lawsuits are much higher than other torts and therefore suing for defamation is quite difficult.  

If you would like to obtain legal advice on the Defamation Act, Contact Law can put you in touch with a local Defamation Solicitor free of charge. So, if you have any questions or would like our help in finding local Defamation Solicitors please call us on 0800 1777 162 or complete the web-form above.

Last Updated on 02/03/2010