We are your source for a defamation attorney, handling both the prosecution and defense of defamation claims. Defamation is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual or business a negative image. It is usually a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed.
In Florida Defamation is defined as:
A civil action for libel will lie when there has been a false and unprivileged publication by letter, or otherwise, which exposes a person to distrust, hatred, contempt, ridicule or obloquy or which causes such person to be avoided, or which has a tendency to injure such person in his office, occupation, business or employment. If the publication is false and not privileged and such that its natural and proximate consequence necessarily causes injury to a person in his personal, social, official or business relations of life, wrong and injuries are presumed or implied and such publication is actionable per se. Cooper v. Miami Herald, 31 So.2d 382, 384 (Fla. 1947).
Public Officials, Celebrities, or other public entities or personalities generally have to demonstrate an additional element of “actual malice,” to recover from a defamatory statement made against them.
Florida Law requires that these public persons prove that the publisher of the defamatory statement acted with actual malice. Actual malice is established by showing that the publication was made with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. Hoch v. Rissman, Weisberg, Barrett, 742 So.2d 451, 460 (Fla. 5th DCA 1999).