Defamation of character claims are relatively challenging because you have to prove a variety of different things. Each of which presents legal challenges. The first is, you actually have to prove that someone has, in fact, posted a false statement of fact about you. If someone posts on Facebook something about you that really hurts, because it’s like, whoa, they said something really negative about me. That may or may not be defamation of character under law. It has to be a false statement of fact, as opposed to a false statement of opinion. Even the difference between fact and opinion can be very difficult to understand, sometimes.

Welcome to Defamation Law Radio. Internet defamation of character is as easy to perpetuate as a blog post, Facebook update, rating submission, or a forum comment. Your online reputation is measured by the websites return as Google search results. Do you know what people are saying and writing about you?

Matt Plessner: Hi, it’s Matt Plessner for Defamation Law Radio, and today we’ll be talking about what defamation of character means. We will be covering as well, Internet defamation including Facebook, Twitter and other social media. To help us understand this better, we are speaking with attorney at law, Enrico Schaefer, from the Traverse Legal office in Traverse City, Michigan. Enrico, how are you?

Enrico Schaefer: Doing great today, Matt.

Matt Plessner: Well, tell us, Enrico, exactly how common is defamation of character on the Internet? Especially on social media like Facebook or Twitter?

Enrico Schaefer: It’s huge, Matt. In our law firm, we get calls and emails just about every day from folks who believe that they have been defamed on the Internet. They are trying to understand what their options are. The problem, of course, unlike a newspaper, the Internet is permanent. So, when someone posts something on Facebook or Twitter or on a blog post or their website, that post can literally be there for the rest of your life and beyond.

Matt Plessner: How do you prove a defamation of character claim?

Enrico Schaefer: Defamation of character claims are relatively challenging because you have to prove a variety of different things. Each of which presents legal challenges. The first is, you actually have to prove that someone has, in fact, posted a false statement of fact about you. If someone posts on Facebook something about you that really hurts, because it’s like, whoa, they said something really negative about me. That may or may not be defamation of character under law. It has to be a false statement of fact, as opposed to a false statement of opinion. Even the difference between fact and opinion can be very difficult to understand, sometimes.

If someone says, Matt, hey so-and-so went to the supermarket, and I saw them shoplifting. It turns out that someone posts that on Facebook. Well, then that’s something that, as an attorney specializing in defamation law, I can prove that statement either true or false. Therefore, it qualifies as a false statement of fact. If, on the other hand, someone posts on Facebook or Twitter, I believe that so-and-so is a really bad person, and I think that if they had the chance, they would shoplift. Well, that is much closer to a statement of opinion than a statement of fact. That’s going to be protected by the first amendment, and that may not be actionable as defamation under law.

The next thing you have to prove is that the statement tends to harm your reputation. Typically, that’s not much of a challenge because you wouldn’t be calling a defamation attorney if, in fact, you didn’t feel that the statement is harming your reputation in some way. Then, there are a variety of privileges that apply to the defense side for the person who actually has posted the defamatory comment. There is the issue of damages, you have to prove different categories of damages in order to have a claim. You have to prove that the defamation was published. That’s typically not a problem, it’s on the Internet in the case of social media. Someone has posted it on Twitter or Facebook. So, the real challenging issues are showing that it was a false statement of fact, and that, in fact, it harms your character in a way that you have suffered damages from.

Matt Plessner: What about those people who re-publish, or re-tweet or Facebook share somebody else’s defamation?

Enrico Schaefer: That’s a great question, Matt. What people fail to realize is that, when they re-tweet, Like, or share a post that’s defamatory written by someone else, they become a publisher of that information, and you may end up taking on some liability under defamation law if you re-publish, re-tweet, re-share, or share a particular post that the court of law finds at some point, is defamatory. So, you do need to be very careful about what you re-publish in any of these different social media, because you could get hit with your own defamation of character threat letter or even worse, Matt, someone could actually sue you along with the person who actually published the original defamatory post.

Matt Plessner: Well, thank you, Enrico, for enlightening us on Internet defamation. One final question. What tips would you have for somebody who’s been defamed on Facebook?

Enrico Schaefer: Well, if you end up getting defamed on Facebook or Twitter or some website, the first thing that you need to do is get a screen capture of the post. Sometimes, people will take them down, sometimes those posts may be very difficult to find later on. As a defamation of character attorney specializing in defamation law, the first question I have for a client is, OK, do you have evidence of what was posted? Sometimes, they will send me a link, and we’ll go through the effort of getting the screen capture to preserve that evidence. So the first tip is, get the evidence.

The second tip is that you need to remove your emotions from your analysis. When you are the target of a defamatory statement that is posted on the Internet, and that becomes part of the online experience, your first reaction is emotional, of course. It’s, wow this really hurts, we have to do something, we have to sue someone for defamation. You need to remove your emotion from it because you’re going to need to make some very important decisions moving forward in terms of how much money you’re going to spend to have it removed, understanding the challenges that you may face as a plaintiff if you decide to file a lawsuit claiming defamation of character on the internet. You need to be able to make these decisions in a rational way. So, try to remove your emotion from it.

The third tip is you need to hire an attorney that specializes in Internet and online defamation. You really have two big issues here. You have, what is defamation under state law, and then you have the challenges of having that content removed from the Internet. There are specialized Internet laws that apply to trying to remove content from a website or from Facebook, or from Twitter that the attorney is going to have to be aware of. We end up dealing with these issues so often we tend to know how different web sites deal with a threat letter or a notice letter or a request to take down defamatory contents. We know how to work through the terms of service on that website.

Matt Plessner: Thank you very much for your time, Enrico. My name is Matt Plessner. Join us next time on Defamation Law Radio.

You’ve been listening to Defamation Law Radio, where defamation of character, slander, and libel are always the topic of the day. Whether you are a defamation attorney or a client, we are the number one resource for all your defamation questions.

What do you do if you are the victim of a false statement of fact, and that is published somehow on the Internet? What do you do if you’ve been wrongly accused of defamation, libel or slander, as a result of something that you may or may not have posted on the Internet, and what is the difference between defamation versus libel versus slander? These are the types of issues that we’re going to talk about today, and hopefully by the end of this show, you’ll have a better understanding of how these concepts work.

Welcome to Defamation Law Radio. Internet defamation of character is as easy to perpetuate as a blog post, Facebook update, rating submission, or a forum comment.  Your online reputation is measured by the websites return as Google search results.  Do you know what people are saying and writing about you?

Welcome to Defamation Law Radio. My name is defamation lawyer, Enrico Schaefer. My firm specializes in defamation, libel and slander cases originating on the Internet.

So, what do you do if you are the victim of a false statement of fact, and that is published somehow on the Internet? What do you do if you’ve been wrongly accused of defamation, libel or slander, as a result of something that you may or may not have posted on the Internet, and what is the difference between defamation versus libel versus slander? These are the types of issues that we’re going to talk about today, and hopefully by the end of this show, you’ll have a better understanding of how these concepts work.

The first thing that I want to talk about is the difference between defamation versus libel versus slander. Defamation is a general category which captures both libel and slander. So, when we talk about defamation law, we’re talking about both libel and slander, on the Internet.

When we talk about libel, we’re talking about written defamation. So, someone has written something in text and published it online, on the Internet. When we talk about slander, we’re talking about defamation by the spoken word. Someone has said something, typically on a YouTube video or in an audio recording. And so, libel from “liber” in Latin, means written, and slander means “spoken.”

And, of course, because we do have, in the Internet space we have the ability to post videos, and we have the ability to post audio, there are instances where the defamation of character occurs through slander. It’s much more common for defamation of character on the Internet to occur as a result of a written entry, a comment, a blog post, an online review, or some other written form that’s posted on the Internet. So, these are the concepts that you need to understand. If someone says that they were defamed, that won’t tell you what form the defamation has taken.

Most people talk about defamation in the general sense, and it’s only when you get into defamation law do you need to understand the differences between slander and libel. The general concepts, however, are the same. There needs to be a false statement of fact, it needs to be published, it has to have the tendency to harm your reputation, and there are a variety of different theories of damages for defamation on the Internet which might come into play.

So, there are a lot of variables here. When you speak to a defamation of character attorney, you need to let that attorney know how the defamation has occurred. Try and do a screen capture of the website, so that it is preserved in case the defamatory statement is taken down at some point, you need evidence of defamation, and so you’re going to need to be able to have that evidence. If, in fact, it is a video or an audio file, oftentimes you can do a right-click on that and you can download it to your computer, or you can do a video export in order to make sure that you capture that. At a minimum, get a link to the website on the internet where the defamation has occurred, so your defamation of character attorney can do the proper analysis.

The key here is that, it is often very emotional when you believe that you have been defamed online, so you need to let the attorney do the analysis to find out whether or not this is the type of statement that would be fact or opinion. Opinions are not actionable as defamation of character. False statements of fact are actionable, but there’s a big gray area between what is a fact and what is an opinion, and you have to look at the context of the online post, you have to look at a variety of different factors.

Of course, different states have different laws which govern these principles. It has to have a tendency to harm your reputation in order to be defamation of character. So, even if it’s something that you don’t like, it has to demean you in some way and, of course, you have to have good character in order to have a loss of character.

These are the types of things that any good, competent, experienced defamation of character attorney is going to be looking at as part of an initial assessment of your defamation claim, or if you believe you’ve been falsely accused of defamation on the Internet, these are the types of issues that your attorney is going to take a look at in order to see whether or not you may or may not have a problem because you may or may not be liable under the facts as stated.

My name is Enrico Schaefer. I’m a defamation attorney practicing with Traverse Legal. Have a great day.

You’ve been listening to Defamation Law Radio, where defamation of character, slander, and libel are always the topic of the day.  Whether you are a defamation attorney or a client, we are the number one resource for all your defamation questions.

On the plaintiff’s side, you need to understand whether or not the content, the posting, the publication of the false statement of fact qualifies as defamation under state law, whether you’re in California, Michigan, Florida, Colorado, Utah, wherever else, every state has its own law and you need to understand whether or not you can meet the elements of defamation of character under your particular state statute or common law.  So the first thing you need to do on the plaintiff’s side is understand do you have a potential claim for defamation of character.

On the defense side, if you are wrongfully accused of defamation of character on the internet as a result of something that you have posted on a website, a comment, a review site such as Yelp or Complaints Board or Ripoff Report, if you have been accused of defamation of character on the internet by a plaintiff through their attorney, you need to understand what your defenses are.  So a defamation of character attorney can help you understand what state law defenses will exist, whether or not there is an Anti-SLAPP statute in play, whether or not the statement potentially does qualify as a false statement of fact, whether or not the statement, in fact, impugns someone’s reputation, and the other defenses that are going to go along with privilege and the standard of negligence or recklessness in terms of whether or not you should have known the statement was false, if, in fact, the plaintiff is alleging the statement is false.

So, under any scenario, whether you are a plaintiff who is looking at suing for defamation of character, or you are defendant who needs to defend against a claim of defamation on the internet, the first thing that you need to do is get yourself educated.  So, you should follow these steps.

Number one, you should do your own research.  The beauty of the internet and Google is that you get to go out there and educate yourself, so plug in some search terms such as internet defamation, defamation of character online, web defamation, add the words attorneys or lawyers and see what is out there.

The next thing you need to do is contact a defamation of character attorney who specializes in internet defamation, so they understand the back-end technology that’s involved as well.  And you need to start asking questions such as:  Does this statement qualify as defamation under state law?  What can I do about defamation of character on the web?  What are my defenses to a defamation of character claim made by a plaintiff’s attorney who’s saying that they are going to file a lawsuit against me if, in fact, I don’t respond to a defamation of character threat letter which I have received?  These are the types of questions you need to ask your attorney in order to understand what your options are and how you might approach the matter and, of course, from every client’s point of view, how much it might cost in order to bring a defamation claim or defend against a defamation claim?

So, contact attorneys and get information, get yourself educated.  If you are plaintiff, the next thing you’re going to need to do is decide whether or not you want to send a defamation of character threat letter or proceed right to a defamation lawsuit against the alleged wrongdoer.  If you’re defending against a claim of defamation of character, you need to understand whether or not you should respond to a threat letter sent by an attorney to you?  If you are anonymous, can they identify you?  What might happen if you do respond?  What might happen if you don’t respond?  These are the types of issues that are going to be important to you.

My name is Enrico Schaefer.  I’m an attorney specializing in internet law.  I am an internet law attorney.  I also handle defamation cases online and can help you understand where you stand on a defamation issue when it occurs on the internet.  That’s all for today, signing off, we will see you next time on Defamation Law Radio.

Too often, the review, comment or rating is a purposely untrue statement by a disgruntled patient, competitor or anonymous person.  A doctor’s reputation is defamed and search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing return the false statement every time someone searches for that doctor’s name.  Libel on the internet can cost a doctor more than their reputation for life. It can put them out of business.

Understanding how to handle these issue requires real expertise not only in defamation, slander and libel law but also internet law. Understanding how to deal with web site hosts, user generated content (UGC), Communications Decency Act (CDA) immunity are primary for an attorney looking to help a doctor with on-line defamation issues. We can help.  Contact us today to learn more about legal options for doctors facing defamation on the internet.  If you don’t protect your reputation, who will?

Technically, when someone publishes a false statement of fact on the Internet, it is “libel” as opposed to slander.  Libel is written defamation.  Slander is spoken defamation.  Internet defamation and libel claims pose additional challenges.  When the person who posted the comment, bulletin board item, Facebook post, Twitter tweat or website is anonymous, you need a qualified Internet law attorney to help you understand how to uncover the identity of the anonymous poster.

Internet defamation claims not only involve a solid understanding of defamation law, but a solid understanding of how the Internet works, how terms of service (TOS) may affect the ability to have the offending content removed, and how to identify anonymous posters of defamatory material.

No comes the latest claim of defamation on twitter. NBA referee Bill Spooner just filed a federal defamation and libel lawsuit (click link to see the Federal Court Complaint) against Minneapolis-based sportswriter Jon Krawczynski and the Associated Press alleging he was defamed on Twitter during a a game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Houston Rockets.  The alleged defamatory tweet by Krawczynski states: “Ref Bill Spooner told Rambis he’d “get it back” after a bad call. Then he made an even worse call on Rockets. That’s NBA officiating folks.” Spooner says that the statement quoted in the tweet was a request made by the coach to ‘get it [the foul call] back,’ not promise by Spooner to do so.

See more below. The federal court complaint alleges that Krawczynski erroneously stated that Spooner told Coach Rambis Rambus would get points back to Timberwolves by calling an erroneous foul  on the Houston, essentially suggesting that Spooner would engage in a form of game fixing.

Note the prayer for relief in the defamation complaint.

PRAYER FOR RELIEF.

WHEREFORE, Plaintiff prays for the following relief against both Defendants, and each
of them, jointly and severally, as follows:  A declaratory judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, and/or Minn. Stat. 555.01 et seq., declaring that the statement published by Defendants constitutes defamation per se under applicable law; Judgment for compensatory damages in a reasonable amount excess of $75,000; Issuance of a temporary and permanent injunction requiring Defendants to remove, or cause to be made inaccessible to the public, those previously published statements on Twitter.com, and any related publications;  a ruling that Defendants did defame the Plaintiff;  and to require Defendants to publish a retraction of said statement;

This defamation lawsuit faces some big hurdles.  First of all, Spooner may be considered a public figure or limited public figure, thereby requiring proof of malice. Second, the author of the tweet did not actually say that Spooner was engaged in ‘game fixing’ and it is unclear whether people who read the tweet would interpret the post that way. A more reasonable interpretation is likely that sometimes refs make bad calls and, to no ones surprise, ‘make up’ calls are part of the game.

Game fixing is something substantially different, and would involve much more than equalizing fouls. Instead, it would involve trying to create a specific winner or loser through a series of one-sided calls, or a call in the last moments of the game. It may also be hard to find anyone who thinks less of Spooner as a result of the tweet.  Was his reputation really tarnished?  If not, his twitter defamation claim will fail.

On the plus side for this defamation plaintiff, a NBA’s referee’s reputation is important, more important than say a used car salesman or – gasp – lawyer. Further, the recent game fixing scandal in July 2007 wherein National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy gambled on 10 to 15 games, including games which he refereed provides context and possible inferences to the alleged defamatory tweets.

Some obvious questions:

1. Will Rambas feel pressure to support Spooner, the ref?
2. Will the NBA sue the AP for its reporters suggestion that ‘pay back’ bad calls are part of the NBA game?
3. Given that pay back calls also happen in the NHL as refs sometimes try to equal up penalties, will defamation lawsuits be filed against me, reporters, coaches or players who make such claims?
4. Is it true that NBA referees sometimes make up for bad calls, with a quick penalty the other way.

One thing is for sure, http://twitter.com/#!/APkrawczynski aka @APkrawczynski is about to pick up some serious twitter followers to see what he tweets next. He currently stands at 2,108. So far, he is quiet on the twitter front, perhaps on advice of his defamation defense lawyer.

An anonymous comment was posted about your company on a review web site stating that your company  cheated them out of money, that the people at your company are crooks and that customers should avoid doing business with your company at all cost.  The web site where the statement was posted is coming back as the third Google search result just below your web site and domain name. Your first impulse is that the statement is defamation. Your second is to contact an attorney to send a threat letter to the web site owner demanding that comment removed.

The First Question: In order for a statement to be defamatory under law, the statement posted on the internet must be a false statement of fact, rather than a statement of opinion. Clients are often confused about what is a fact versus an opinion.  Surprisingly, so are courts, judges and many lawyers who do not practice defamation law. The reality is that defamation can law can be hard to decipher on this critical issue of “what is a false statement of fact” as the first element of proving defamation on the internet.

A defamatory statement is one that diminishes your reputation or causes people to think less of you. Statements that are merely offensive, are not defamatory.   Defamatory statements that disparage a company’s goods or services are called trade libel, which damages the company by disparaging its goods or services.

A statement of opinion cannot be defamatory because it cannot be proven true or false.  In general, facts are statements that can be proven true or false.  “XYZ Company was sued by the Attorney General of the State of Arizona for defrauding customers” states several fact that, if false, could be considered defamatory.  “I think XYZ Company should be investigated by the State of California” is a statement of opinion.   Opinions are matters of belief or ideas that cannot be proven one way or the other.

There are many gray areas under defamation law between facts and opinions.  Courts will review the context and medium in which the alleged defamation occurred as an important part of the analysis.   Unfortunately, courts have little experience understanding how defamation on the internet, say on a review site or blog comment, should be treated against the First Amendment right to free speech. Even attorneys who do not understand the internet often misjudge the merits of a case originating with a statement.

Defamation per se involves false statements of fact which presumes damages.  That is, no damages must be proven as an element of the defamation, libel or slander claim.  Defamation per se  occurs in most states when the false internet post, tweet, review or comment  (i) accuses someone of a crime; (ii) alleges that someone has a disease; (iii) suggests that a person or business is unfit to conduct their business or trade; or (iv) imputes sexual misconduct.

Internet law involves the attempt to apply traditional legal principles – such as the law of defamation – when the conduct complained of occurs on the internet. Courts have struggled to apply defamation law in the context of the internet for obvious reasons.  Before the world wide web, few people wielded the power of the pen.  Now, everyone has a global audience and can express themselves as easily is key-stroking a blog post, blog comment, bulletin board post, Facebook post or comment, Twitter tweet, web site comment or customer review.

An attorney handling an internet defamation case has much bigger challenges than when defamation occurs off-line. Sometimes identifying a web site owner or other anonymous author of defamatory content can be difficult. There are dozens of different and specific strategies for dealing with defamatory statements on the internet.  Many strategies require expertise in back-end DNS, domain registrars, domain registrant search, proxy services, Section 230 Immunity under the Communications Decency Act, User Generated Content, IP tracking, ISP subpoenas and related issues.  Sometimes, defamation occurs on familiar sites such as www.ComplaintsBoard.com or www.RipOffReport.com which were designed to promote and drive advertising revenue from online libel.  Sometimes, it is an competitor disguised as one of your customers who is posting false information.  Understanding how to deal with these types of web sites is critical.

You should speak with an attorney who specializes in internet defamation to learn more about your options, the cost of each option and potential return on investment if you should be able to remove the libelous statements.  Every situation is different. Not every fight is worth it.  If you are losing business or your reputation has been attacked, sometimes you have no choice but to fight.  Chances are, we can help.