Delay in Action for Defamation Could Affect Your Claim

You need to be quick if you are worried about being defamed. 

A couple of quick tips today that have come out of our work.

We had an inquiry about defamation. Now, if you are going to get upset about what somebody says about you, you need to take action quickly.

The person who spoke to us was concerned about something that was said back about six months before their call. It may be too late to take action. It may be implied that the defamatory statements were not that serious because the complainant knew about them for a long time and didn’t complain or take action earlier.

On the other hand, it should also be possible in that length of time to work out whether or not the complainant has actually suffered any damage to their reputation and it may be possible that a culmination of repeated publications over that length of time start to have a negative impact on the complainant so that action to stop defamation does become necessary. 

We’ll have to look at the enquiry we have received more carefully before deciding how to proceed, but if someone is going to defame you, you need to take action. You need to decide what you’re going to do quickly. Don’t sit on it.

So your tip for today, if you feel you’ve been defamed, do something about it now.