New Defamation Act

Details

Created: Monday, January 03 2011 10:38

The Defamation Act 2009 came into effect on 1 January 2010 and introduced some significant changes to defamation law in Ireland.

This Act has abolished the distinction between libel and slander and introduced a new tort of defamation. A defamatory statement means “a statement that tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society”.

A limitation period of one year now applies, meaning that a person now has only one year to issue proceedings in respect of the defamatory act. Previously, the limitation period was 6 years for libel (i.e. written defamation) and 3 years for slander (i.e. verbal defamation).

Courts are now empowered to summarily dispose of a defamation claim before trial, and issue Corrective, Prohibition and Declaratory Orders in the Circuit Court. A Correction Order is an Order requiring the Defendant to publish a correction of the defamatory statement, without an Order for damages.

A defendant can now make a lodgement without an admission of liability. If the plaintiff is successful in his claim, but the damages awarded are not more than the sum lodged, the defendant will be entitled to his costs against the plaintiff from the date of the lodgement. Previously, the lodgement procedure was not widely used in the High Court as defendants were required to admit liability on making a lodgement.

The Act has revamped the defences available to media organisations, with the most significant changes being the introduction of the defence of fair and reasonable publication and the offer to make amends. In order to rely on the defence of fair and reasonable publication, a newspaper will need to show that it acted in good faith on a matter of public interest and that the extent of the publication did not exceed what was necessary. The main defence available to newspapers is that the statement made was true.

Some other new defences restate the existing old defences. The defence of justification is now known as the defence of truth and the defence of fair comment has been renamed the defence of honest opinion.

The jurisdiction of the Circuit Court for defamation matters has been increased to €50,000, which should ensure more matters are instigated in the Circuit Court and will reduce the potential legal costs of claims.