Business Law: Defamation Outline

* 4 Tort Causes of Action for Invasion of Privacy:

1. Intrusion Upon a person’s solitude:

a. Physical or nonphysical intrusion into “zone of privacy.”

b. Must be highly offensive to a reasonable person (objective standard).

2. Public Disclosure of Private Facts About a Person:

c. Must be highly offensive to a reasonable person and not a matter of legitimate concern to the public.

3. Publicity Placing a Person in a False Light to Public:

d. Publicity attributing to a person characteristics he does not have or beliefs he does not hold.

4. Misappropriation of Name or Likeness for Commercial Purposes (also called the Right of Publicity):

e. Use of name/image/other information for commercial purposes to imply some non-existent connection or to imply product endorsement.

Defense to Defamation

*Privilege – even if all of the elements of defamation have been established by the plaintiff, the defendant will be protected by a “qualified privilege” in certain situations:

1. Statements made during “legislative proceedings.”

2. Statements made during “executive proceedings.”

3. Statements made during “judicial proceedings.”

4. Statements made as “employment references.”

5. Statements made as “credit bureau information.”

* P must prove that D made the false and defamatory statement either:

a. With knowledge of its falsity; or

b. With reckless disregard as to its truth.

* Reckless disregard – D had serious doubts as to the truth of the statement.

* Note: reckless disregard is tough to prove therefore this standard supports 1st Amendment & freedom of the press.

* P must prove only that D acted with a lack of reasonable care in making the false statement.

* Note: easier to prove and easier for P to win the lawsuit.

* Required Degree of Fault Depends on Who the Plaintiff is:

Public Official Public Figure Private Figure

The Actual Malice Standard Negligence...