In reality defamation – usually referred to as slander and libel – rarely crops up a genuine legal issue. From time to time we receive lots of questions about whether something is defamatory but the legal option is so expensive that it is definitely one for the rich and principled!
However it always seems to be an area that interests people so here’s a quick update.
In Hayden v Family Education Trust [2023] EWHC 950 (KB) the claimant had sued in respect of a Tweet that was said to be defamatory. However the defendant was granted summary judgment by the High Court because the claimant was unable to show that the defendant’s Tweet had caused or was likely to cause serious damage to her reputation. The Tweet had been liked twice and retweeted three times, and had only been available for 40 minutes.
It is not enough simply to argue that something someone says or writes is untrue. There has to be a clear causal connection between what is alleged and a measurable loss.