County Court of Victoria … Court orders preliminary hearing on serious harm threshold … Home builders suing for defamation and injurious falsehood over WhatsApp and Facebook posts … Claim serious harm evident in claims of theft and loss of business … Consideration of whether special circumstances warrant postponement till trial … Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Category: Serious harm
Kim v Kim
District Court of NSW … Defamation action dismissed for failing to provide details of serious harm … Failure to respond to request for further particulars … Failure to provide matters complained of … Summary judgment refused for plaintiff … Need to establish serious harm … Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Bottrill v Graham (No 2)
District Court of NSW … Former public servant establishes serious harm from podcast claims … Issue of whether establishing serious harm requires rulings on imputations … Whether serious harm can be established by inferences … No requirement for “mini-trials” … Submissions using Generative AI … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
MG v PJ
Queensland Court of Appeal … Appeal over dismissal of proceeding following failure to establish serious harm element fails … Appellant sued brother-in-law and nephew over statements to police resulting in protection notices … Correctness standard applies to evaluation of s.10A … Distillation of principles concerning application of s.10A … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Ibrahim v Ye
County Court of Victoria … Specialist physician loses defamation action after failing to establish serious harm to his reputation … Sued over reviews on Google, Yelp and Yellow Pages … Inherent tendency of words offset by “extremely limited” extent of publication … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Mannoun v Ristevski
District Court of NSW … Liverpool mayor has action against former accountant over Facebook comment dismissed … Allegations mayor was a “crim”, a “grub” and inflated the value of a business before selling it to a charity … Failed to establish serious harm … Limited readership of “shenanigans” page confined to those with a duty to monitor it or already had a poor view of the mayor … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Gayed v Virgin Mary & St Markorious Coptic Orthodox Church
Supreme Court of NSW … Coptic Orthodox Church parishioner seeks to sue priest and Church management over email sent to parishioners … Imputations of involvement in murder, money-laundering, theft and fraud … Said to be first instance of superior court of record considering validity of concerns notice with regards to serious harm element … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Stevens v Birtic
District Court of Queensland … Fish truck operator has defamation claim against rival operator dismissed … Concerns notice failed to identify serious harm suffered … Claim and statement of claim said to suffer similar deficiencies … No leave to replead … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Russell v S3@Raw Pty Ltd
Federal Court of Australia … Court rules s.10A(5) of Defamation Act concerning separate determination of serious harm not picked up by s.79 of the Judiciary Act … Constraint on Federal Court Act and Rules own provisions for case management … Sufficient particulars of serious harm in concerns notices … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Peros v Nationwide News Pty Ltd & Ors (No 3)
Supreme Court of Queensland … Man acquitted of murder has defamation action over Hedley Thomas podcast episode dismissed … Failure to establish episode caused serious harm … Exegesis on serious harm element, causation and admissibility of evidence … Consideration of the rule in Dingle … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
McGilvery v Punter & Anor
District Court of Queensland … Sunshine Coast man fails to establish serious harm element … Sued brother-in-law and nephew after they made complaint to police … Publication limited to police reports, Police Protection Notices, and to body corporate treasurer … Only moderate harm to reputation established … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more
Peros v Blackburn
Federal Court … Mother of murdered woman fails to obtain separate question hearing on serious harm … Sought hearing under Federal Court Rules, rather than s.10A(5) of the Defamation Act … Outcome may well have been different under Defamation Act … Justice Roger Derrington calls for changes to Rules … Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports … more