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Understanding Defamation Claims and Damages

Defamation involves publishing a statement that lowers an individual, group, business, product, government or nation in the view of others. To establish a defamation claim, the claimant must prove the defendant published defamatory material referring to the claimant. Direct evidence of hearing the statement or circumstantial evidence like proving the defendant owned a website where the statement was posted can be used. The statement must be defamatory, refer to the plaintiff, and be published. General damages are presumed from the nature of the words, while special damages must be specifically claimed and proven. Indian law presumes general damages for any defamatory words. The court determines damages based on factors like the allegation's gravity, publication size/influence

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49 views2 pages

Understanding Defamation Claims and Damages

Defamation involves publishing a statement that lowers an individual, group, business, product, government or nation in the view of others. To establish a defamation claim, the claimant must prove the defendant published defamatory material referring to the claimant. Direct evidence of hearing the statement or circumstantial evidence like proving the defendant owned a website where the statement was posted can be used. The statement must be defamatory, refer to the plaintiff, and be published. General damages are presumed from the nature of the words, while special damages must be specifically claimed and proven. Indian law presumes general damages for any defamatory words. The court determines damages based on factors like the allegation's gravity, publication size/influence

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DEFAMATION

Defamation is publication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be


factual, that may give an individual, group, business, product, government or nation a
negative image and tends to lower the image in the estimation of the right-thinking members
of society generally or tend to make them shun or avoid them.

In order to establish a claim of defamation, a claimant must prove that the defendant has
published or is responsible for the publication of the defamatory material which is reasonably
understood to refer to the claimant, either by name or by other means of identification

To prove defamation, either of the two should be there:-


Direct Evidence. Direct evidence means that the evidence supports the disputed fact without
the need for any intervening inference. For example, a witness testifying that they heard the
defamatory statement would be direct evidence.
Circumstantial Evidence. Circumstantial evidence, on the other hand, consists of a fact or
series of facts that, if proven, indirectly prove another fact. Circumstantial evidence is the
most common form of evidence. In a defamation case, an example of circumstantial evidence
would be proof that the defendant is the domain name owner of a website where a defamatory
statement was posted.

Essential of defamation
The statement must be defamatory
The statement must refer to the plaintiff
The statement must be published

General damages are such as the law will presume to be the natural and probable
consequences of the defendant's words or conduct. They arise by inference of law and need
not, therefore be proved by evidence.
Special damages, on the other hand, are such as the law will not infer from the nature of the
words themselves; they must, therefore, be specially claimed on the pleadings and evidence
of them must be given at the trial.
In India, if words have been proved to be defamatory of the plaintiff, general damages will
always be presumed since all defamatory words are actionable per se.
Whether special damage has also been suffered, that will remain a matter of proof, and if so
proved, the plaintiff will be entitled to recover on that score along with general damages. The
Court may come to the conclusion that although the action was well founded, the damages
claimed were excessive or that it was extremely difficult for the plaintiff to have valued his
claim at a particular figure. The damages are to be determined and quantified, depending
upon various factors and circumstances. These factors cannot be found in any book or literal
work.

Furthermore, an award of damages for defamation may include elements of aggravated or


exemplary damages, i.e., the damages cannot be precisely quantified in monetary terms but
the claimant is entitled to a substantial award for wrong committed against him.

Honourable Panaji Bench of Honourable Bombay High Court has ruled down in aforesaid
precedent [Umar’s case] in paragraph 15 and 16 thereof that- The plaintiff in defamation
action is entitled to recover as general compensatory damages, such sum as will compensate
him for the wrong he has suffered. That sum must compensate him for the damage to his
reputation; vindicate his good name; and take account of the distress, hurt and humiliation
which the defamatory publication has caused.

Numbers of factors are enlisted to determine amount of damages, which is to be awarded.


Those factors are:-
(i) the gravity of allegation,
(ii) the size and influence of the circulation,
(iii) the effect of publication,
(iv) the extent and nature of claimant’s reputation and
(v) the behavior of defendant and claimant plaintiff.
These factors lend us upper hand to decide the perfect amount of damages and costs.

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%20no43%20pdf).pdf

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