Libel & slander

The Queen’s Bench Division, on preliminary issues in defamation proceedings, held among other things that s 1(1) of the Defamation Act 2013 provided that a statement was not defamatory of a person unless it had caused or would probably cause serious harm to that person’s reputation, those being matters that had to be proved by the claimant on the balance of probabilities. The intention of Parliament was that claimants should have to go beyond showing a tendency to harm reputation. The court could have regard to all the relevant circumstances, including evidence of what had actually happened after publication.