When to Hire a Los Angeles Libel Attorney

In a time when news flies fast and furious on the Internet, emails clog cyberspace and rumors spread over networking sites at a viral rate, it’s easy to see how things can get out of control, truth-wise. It’s also easy to see how much damage can be done with one written, false statement. Yet every day in Los Angeles and across the nation people push the envelope of truth and cross over the line defaming the character of one or more individuals.  The law calls this type of improper writings “Libel”.  It is one type of “defamation of character” injury.  Whether the writing is in gossip web sites, company emails, blogs, or cartoons, libel in its many forms can cause sustained damage to a person and his reputation.

Libel is a statement made in written or representational form (a drawing, a doctored photograph, etc.) that damages the character, reputation, ability to do business, or unjustly holds a person up to public ridicule. Libel, like slander (an spoken offense) falls under the heading of defamation of character and character injury. These kinds of lawsuits are among the most difficult to litigate because the damages are not physical, but social.  Libel affects the social standing of a victim, unjustly losing his or her good name in the process. Proving libel means that the statement made or the rendering depiction was unjust or untrue. Libel, like slander, is concerned with a person’s good name and reputation. A case of libel assumes that the victim’s reputation or character has been harmed in some way by a written statement that is untrue and also that the victim is innocent or undeserving of the libel.

When celebrities in Los Angeles sue gossip magazines about stories they’ve published, the world hears about them.  These magazines straddle the line between truth and fiction all the time and use phrases like “sources tell us” or “allegedly” before telling their outright fabrications and lies. This can often mitigate a libel lawsuit because it’s not a statement of fact, merely an allegation. But occasionally, an actor will sue the rags for beating a story so hard the libel becomes ‘fact’ in the public consciousness.  When a Los Angeles actor in the nineties revealed was diagnosed with an illness that made him lose a lot of weight suddenly, the rags alleged that he had AIDS. By the time that magazine was done, the public perception was that he did have AIDS. The phone stopped ringing, no one would hire him, despite recovering from cancer. His career and his reputation was directly affected by their lies.

He hired a Los Angeles libel attorney, sued the paper for libel and won. Why? Because the libel they were spreading was not based in truth – not about his health, or the ensuing innuendo about his lifestyle.  His Los Angeles libel attorney earned him a huge libel settlement and a published apology, and changed the way that paper did business. For a while, at least.

In the real world outside of Los Angeles, libel can exist on a different playing field.  John Brandon, 31, had worked for a company for six years when he decided to move on.  A manager who did not like John sent an email to another worker as a joke about John, doctoring a picture of him in dressed women’s clothes with a subversive comment attached.  That man forwarded the picture to several other employees who, as a joke, forwarded it on, then posted it on a networking site. John lost the job he’d been about to take, directly as a result of these shenanigans.  He sued the manager for libel, hiring an expert libel attorney who won a big settlement against the company John had just left and the man who’d sent the email. None of it was true and the lie was told to humiliate John and set him up for ridicule.  The libelous statement damaged his good name and his reputation and hindered his job prospects considerably.

However if someone claims libel, but cannot prove there is no basis in fact about the lie, then their chances of winning a libel lawsuit, even with a good libel attorney are poor.

For instance, a mystery author named Judy Rome (not her real name) enjoyed a successful career as the author of a dozen mysteries. Her book sales were rising and she was on the brink of making the New York Times bestseller’s list.  But on a public reader website, a woman began to make claims that Judy Rome was plagiarizing another author’s work.  Outraged, Judy threatened a libel lawsuit. Newspapers caught wind of the news and her story landed in the book section. A closer inspection of Judy’s books found that, indeed, there were whole paragraphs, characters and dialogue lifted from other author’s work.  In this case there was no libel and Judy Rome could not prevail. Even though Judy Rome’s reputation was damaged, she could not claim libel because the written claim of plagiarism was essentially true.

If you reside or work in Los Angeles and believe you have a case for a libel, contact a Los Angeles libel attorney to sort out the legalities for you.