How to Sue for Defamation, Slander, and Libel

Defamation is the use of damaging lies against you in the spoken form of slander or in the written form of libel. This is a challenging, complex, and specialized area of law. There's a balance between First Amendment (free speech) rights of the person making the statement about you and your right to challenge someone with legal process if they are being untruthful and hurtful.

Instructions

1. If you believe you are a victim of slander or libel, act quickly through the steps below. There is a statute of limitation of usually one year, which means that you have only one year from the commitment of the act of defamation to challenge it legally. This time limit is becoming an issue for Internet archives that are causing old, unchallenged examples of libel to resurface.

2. Be prepared to prove that statements about you are lies. This may seem obvious, but the person making statements about you has to be proven wrong. Moreover, you have to prove that the statements are facts and not opinions.

3. Be prepared to prove harm. If someone has made statements of fact about you that you can prove are untruthful, that's one thing. But you also have to show that you were harmed by them.

4. Call an attorney who specializes in the specific area of concern. Ask if they deal with defamation, or particularly libel or slander (or both) as needed to address your case. When looking for an attorney, an area of practice to consider includes 'Media Law'. Most attorneys in this area of practice are willing to listen to your case to determine if there are grounds for moving forward.