Damages for Online Defamation – the “Serious Harm” Element

The additional requirement to establish “serious harm” in a defamation action was part of the reforms to Australian defamation law which came into effect on 1 July 2021. They were enacted to encourage defamation claims not involving “serious harm” to be resolved without court action. This update provides a review of recent Australian defamation cases where the courts have considered whether the “serious harm” requirement has been established and provides useful guidance on factors that the court will consider in determining “serious harm”.

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Damages for Online Defamation – Recent Cases – 1 March 2022 to 1 December 2022

Recent awards of damages by courts for online defamation continue to serve as a warning to reviewers, bloggers, influencers and business competitors that care should be taken to ensure that the content posted online is factually correct and not defamatory. A Gold Coast cosmetic surgeon was recently awarded $420,000 in damages for false reviews made by a business competitor.

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Damages for Online Defamation – Recent Cases [July 2019 to Feb 2022] – Updated March 2022

Courts continue to award large sums for online defamation. High Court rules that companies, organisations or individuals who create and administer public Facebook pages or pages on other networking platforms, which encourage or facilitate the posting of comments or content by third party users, will be liable as publishers for third party defamatory content or comments that have been posted on their page…

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Damages for Online Defamation – Recent Cases – Updated August 2021

Recent Cases – July 2019 to August 2021 Stephens Lawyers & Consultants* Publication of defamatory comments on websites, social media and business networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn can cause devastating harm to both personal and business reputation and business losses.  Some of the defamatory material published is of such an extreme… Read More

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Changes to the Australian Uniform Defamation Laws – Legal Update

From 1 July 2021, Victoria,[i] New South Wales,[ii] South Australia[iii] and Queensland[iv] introduced changes to the defamation laws. Key changes brought about by the Model Defamation Amendment Provisions 2020 [“New Defamation Laws”] include the following which are discussed as follows: the serious harm element; the single publication rule; the expanded definition of employees; new requirements… Read More

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