Chapter 5 Law and Ethics

Punitive Damages

Compensation awarded to a plaintiff that goes beyond reimbursement for actual losses and is imposed to punish the defendant and deter such conduct in the future. Also called exemplary damages.

Slander

False charges and malicious oral statements about someone

Fawcett Publication V Morris

OU football team sued since all of them were identifiable in an article in a magazine stating that they took drugs.

Limited Purpose Public Figure

Plaintiffs that are not otherwise public figures might be considered to be if they have gained notoriety by voluntarily injecting themselves into a matter of public controversy in an attempt to influence the outcome

Engler v.Winfrey

TX ranchers get angry at Oprah for having a show about "mad cow disease." The ranchers claimed this was libel and damaging to their business. They lost.

New York Times V Sullivan

1964; established guidelines for determining whether public officials and public figures could win damage suits for libel. To do so, individuals must prove that the defamatory statements were made w/ "actual malice" and reckless disregard for the truth

Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc

Gertz was an attorney hired by a family to sue a police officer who had killed the family's son. In a magazine called American Opinion, the John Birch Society accused Gertz of being a "Leninist" and a "Communist-fronter" because he chose to represent clients who were suing a law enforcement officer. The Court reversed the lower court decision and held that Gertz's rights had been violated. Powell advanced many lines of reasoning to establish that ordinary citizens should be allowed more protection from libelous statements than individuals in the public eye.

Identification

In libel law, plaintiffs must show that they were identifiable from libelous material

Defamatory Language

In libel law, the plaintiff must show that the libelous material was defamatory, meaning it asserts an untrue fact that would cause harm to the plaintiff's reputation in the mind of "right thinking persons"

Falsity

cannot be found guilty of libel unless your statement was indeed false

Actual Damages

compensation for losses that can readily be proven to have occurred and for which the injured party has the right to be compensated

Actual Malice

A condition that exists when a person makes a statement with either knowledge of its falsity or a reckless disregard for the truth. In a defamation suit, a statement made about a public figure normally must be made with actual malice for liability to be incurred.

Libel

A written defamation of a person's character, reputation, business, or property rights.

Defamation

Act of harming or ruining another's reputation to a respectable and considerable part of the community

Neutral Reportage

An emerging libel defense or privilege that states that it is permissible to publish or broadcast an accurate account of information about a public figure from a reliable source even when the reporter doubts the truth of the libelous assertion. The defense is not widely accepted

Absolute Privilege

An immunity from libel suits granted to government officials and others based on remarks uttered or written as part of their official duties. If a police officer is writing up a report that happens to be false and damaging to someone's reputation, the officer is protected from a lawsuit.

Criminal Libel

Antiquated crime in which a published could be charged with defamation by the governemt. In modern US jurisprudence, the crime of criminal libel does no exist-- it's mostly a civil issue now.

Rosenbloom v. Metromedia

Applied actual malice. Even if the NYT publishes something false, it is necessary to have "breathing room" for them. If they did not knowingly publish something false, then they're good.

Curtis Publishing v. Butts

Butts was a University of GA coach. Telephone lines crossed and article was published about fixing the game. Butts is a public figure (rather than a public official) and won the case.

Libel per quod

Consists of word or phrases that require contextualization in order to identify the harm (Calling someone crazy, for example, is not always libelous)

Libel per se

Words and expressions that are in and of themselves libelous. (Calling someone a murderer)

Negligence

a failure to exercise reasonable care, or doing what an average member of the community would have done

Innocent Construction Rule

allegedly libelous words that are capable of being interpreted or construed to have an innocent meaning are not libelous. interpretation that most favor the defendant.

privilege

an affirmative defense in which the defendant asserts a justification for having defamed the plaintiff

Publication

any dissemination of a defamatory statement, not strictly in print. in order to damage someone's reputation, a defamatory remark must be made public

Guccione v. Hustler

article printed citing adultery, but plaintiff was not awarded damages for libel because he was a public figure and because of his history and job was libel proof

Qualified Privilege

media privilege to print inaccurate information without liability for defamation, so long as a retraction is printed and there was no malice. If a journalist prints a police report that is false, they are protected because the police officer is protected.