OH we have a twofer! hahaha. I actually just had a conversation with a legal department which is fantastic to have! I know a lot of you offer up some questions or advice or really just general inquires and here I am to help! A friend of mine recently had a lawsuit from his blog that was bogus, basically he reposted something and a lawsuit came from it blah blah. He never went to court, never even had to do anything regarding it but it's annoying you know? SO I had a meeting with my legal team and I had a phone chat with him to get his details of the situation. So basically this blog is going to detail the "defamation" lawsuit for when people have their feelings hurt. Now defamation is a real thing and I'll give details and examples of each so you can all put it into real time events. Defamation is kind of an all ecompassing "blanket" and really walks a fine line between freedom of speech and being lied about. If the statement is made in writing such as this blog or facebook then it's defaming. Like when it was slandered on numerous sites with my full name and child abuser and felon written after it. That's a published defamatory statement. If it's a spoken statement it's called slander. Spoken statements are harder unless they're recorded but regardless. SO here's what you would need to sue for a defamatory statement.
1. Someone made a statement.
Again my GoFundMe page had multiple comments from people with their names and pictures writing all kinds of terrible things. This is a published statement as it's on a website for thousands of people to see. Slander is less harmful than libel because libel is a printed statement and much easier to prove in court.
2. The statement was published.
This can be on Facebook, twitter, a blog or any other publication. This can be written on someones door and it's considered a publication. Multiple people need to see this statement in order for it to be considered public.
3. Injury
This is probably the hardest thing to prove. You have to prove you were injured by this statement, such as you lost your job. It must prove that the statement has hurt your reputation. For example a few weeks back people were calling my job and getting to multiple departments making false statements. I have an affidavit from my job for court stating that these calls were made and were stating I was arrested and convicted making me a felon for child abuse. NONE of that happened, therefore I can bring this affidavit to a court and sue for injury because they made false statements to my job hurting my reputation. It at least attempted to hurt my reputation, I rock at my job still :) But this is a good example of how to sue for libel statements under injury.
4. Falsity
Defamation can only be sued for if the statements that were made were false. I can publish that there's a convicted sex offender on trial again for raping a 13 year old girl. That could be considered defamation if that were not true. Now if you have the court records from that county showing the trial and what the charges were then that's not defamation. Or if you state a child was born addicted to opiates and have the birth records to prove it then again not defamation. The point is you can state facts on this social media pages as long as you have the proof to back it up. If you say so and so was arrested during their 6th month of pregnancy for distribution of narcotics and have the background check to prove it, then you're safe. You cannot go around telling people someone is a convicted felon if they're not and they have proof their not. That's false and that can also be a defamation lawsuit.
5. Unprivileged
This is kind of self explanatory. If someone testifies in a court of law as a witness and makes a hurtful statement about you, you can't sue them. Being in a court of law makes it safe. Nobody sues over this because well you're on trial, and that's a witness who has to tell the truth so sorry charlie!
I hope that clears up some of your questions and concerns! I have a legal team behind me that monitors what I do and checks up on me to prevent these situations. I've sued people in the past and the filing fee isn't cheap and it's an all day process. I get paid from multiple sources including my full time job so I can take the day if someone wants to get feisty. you have to sit in a room together with a mediator and go over what the problem is. If you choose to dismiss this on your own then you go home. The mediator will be very honest with you whether or not they think you have a case. If you decide to persue you wait even longer and then go before a judge. And let me tell you, you better have your shit together and not just be talking nonsense because that judge will put you in your place. So before you make statements or decide to sue someone, think it over. It's not worth the nonsense just to be made a fool of because someone is posting things you don't want to read about. You know what the best idea for that is? Don't read it! Don't stalk them, don't read their posts, don't read their nonsense. Or if you do, just read it and leave it alone. It's not worth your aggravation :)
Kristen
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