Category: Comment

Defamation action by medicos over letters circulated at Monash radiology unit ... Honest opinion defence based on "notorious facts" ... Proper material for trial ... Judge "hesitant to stifle the potential development of the law" ... Stephen Murray reports ... more

Mistake by counsel should be corrected by the court ... Counsel for the plaintiff did not object to judge's failure to spell out the "public interest" requirement of the honest opinion defence ... Application to set aside verdict refused ... Criticism of plaintiff's counsel ... Zero damages where imputations found to be true overwhelmed those where the justification defence failed  ... more

Rare victory for defence of honest opinion as WA District Court judge dismisses defamation claim brought by an accountant over nine Facebook posts criticising him professionally … The posts were honest opinion based on true facts, and in the public interest ... more

The defence of comment makes a rare successful appearance in a judgment from the Supreme Court of Victoria involving a bitter dispute between candidates in a municipal election … All the imputations pleaded are also true ... more

A NSW Supreme Court jury finds Ray Hadley’s defamation of the wife of a convicted child sex offender indefensible … This despite Justice Henric Nicholas directing a verdict for the defendant in relation to three imputations ... more

Author Sarah Thornton’s action against The Daily Telegraph is notable for a number of firsts – including the first time a court has awarded general damages for malicious falsehood. This analysis by Hugh Tomlinson QC first appeared in Inforrm ... more

The defence of “honest comment” gets some further refinement in author Sarah Thornton’s libel action against London’s Daily Telegraph. Sara Mansoori reviews a recent decision in this article, which first appeared on the International Forum for Responsible Media Blog, Inforrm ... more

Can a reviewer hold an opinion about a restaurant he didn’t dine at? NSW Court of Appeal to decide another tasty issue in the Gacics’ long-running action over a scathing review by former Sydney Morning Herald food critic, Matthew Evans ... more

Unpalatable review of Coco Roco restaurant defensible as comment. After four years before the courts, NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison finally finds for The Sydney Morning Herald and its then food critic Matthew Evans ... more

Prominent silk Dyson Hore-Lacy wins latest bout in long-running interlocutory battle with author Phil Cleary and Allen & Unwin. Victorian Court of Appeal finds trial judge rightly refused the pair leave to re-plead “futile” comment defence ... more