If a person writes or makes a false statement regarding you with the intention of of slandering or harming your reputation, they have defamed your character, which is a crime. However, proving this crime can be quite difficult in court.
What Must You Prove In A Defamation Of Character Claim?
In order to prove a defamation of character claim, you are required to prove three things:
– What was said or written against you was false
– The person who wrote or spoke falsehoods against you did it with the intention of harm
– You must prove that harm actually occurred
The first item that you have to prove is that the statement spoken or written about you was false. The second item requires you to prove that the untrue statement was made by the other individual in order to cause you some type of harm, and the third thing that must be proven is that actual harm resulted due to having your character defamed.
What Is Slander And Libel?
Slander is a spoken type of untrue defamatory statement that is made about you. It may occur when someone gives a speech or is talking to a group of reporters. Libel is also an untrue defamatory statement that is made about you, but it is made in writing. This might occur when an individual writes something knowingly untrue regarding you. This could be in a blog post or comment, which includes statements made in digital form.
Proving Defamation Of Character
To prove defamation of character, you will need to obtain proof to back up your claim. This is the easiest part of your case. However, it requires you to obtain proof such as a video clip or copy of a blog post.
The second two aspects of a defamation of character case are more difficult to prove. There is no way to show that another individual made a statement with the intention of causing you harm until it actually causes you problems. This means that you will need to wait for the untrue statements to create problems before you can legally prove that you have been harmed.
Injuries Caused By A Defamatory Statement And Supplying Proof
In reality, defamation causes two types of injuries:
– Harm to a person’s reputation
– Some type of financial harm
Due to the fact that you need to prove that an untrue statement made about you caused you harm, you must experience some type of loss related to money, your business or expenses you incurred while attempting to repair your reputation.
It helps to have witnesses who can testify that the statement made about you has had negative effects. In addition, you may produce evidence such as the loss of your job or being passed over for some type of promotion. Financial harm would require you to supply bills, bank statements or tax returns. Another type of harm you may suffer from defamation would include physical or mental anguish. To prove this, you would be required to supply doctors notes relating to your treatment.
You should also be prepared to supply witnesses who can testify with counter arguments in case an offender claims that your reputation was in a poor state before your claims were made.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!