Defamation by Implication or Suggestion

Defamation is saying a purported fact that is untrue about someone, which is heard by someone else. Even if you don’t know much about the law of defamation, you may have heard plenty of people say “it can’t be defamation because what I said was actually true!”

Truth is a defense to defamation. But when it comes to what is the truth, it’s not always the literal words that come out of someone’s mouth that matters.

Suggestion and Innuendo

That’s because in the English language, it’s not so much the actual words that are spoken, but rather their meaning; the suggestions, semantics or inferences that can be drawn from literal words.

Even if your actual spoken words literally are true, or at least, not defamatory, if they suggest a falsehood, or they omit a fact, or they can be reasonably interpreted as meaning something else that is defamatory, the person speaking (publishing) those statements, can still be liable for defamation.

Imagine as an example, that there were a bunch of thefts in the homes that are next to your home. The newspaper then reports that you just moved into your home just before the thefts happened, and that you own a lot of tools that could be used to break in.

Technically, that may be true; the date you moved in, or the tools you own, or the timing of your move as compared to the burglaries that happened next door.

But the placement of those comments, and the innuendo of that statement suggests something more sinister; “there was a burglary next door to you, and you just moved in, and own tools that could be used to break into a home,” clearly suggests that the writer wants people to believe that you may have had something to do with the burglary, and thus, those statements could form the basis for a defamation claim, even though literally, no untruth was actually ever spoken.

As you can see, truth or falsehood often is evaluated in terms of word placement and sentence structure.

Omitted statements can form the basis for an implied defamation claim as well. We all know that leaving words out, or failing to recognize the context of spoken words, can completely alter a statement’s meaning.

First Amendment Concerns

The problem is that if statements are not literally false and defamatory, then they are usually first amendment protected speech. That means that a party suing for statements that just “suggest” defamation, have a high bar to meet to show liability.

In these kinds of cases, courts will often look to the intent of the author or person publishing the statements, so see if the otherwise literally true statements were meant to infer something more sinister and defamatory. Courts ask whether the Plaintiff making the statements endorsed whatever suggestions or conclusions  may have come from the positioning of the statements.

Questions about a defamation case? Call our West Palm Beach commercial litigation attorneys at Pike & Lustig to help you.

Source:

repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2591&context=mjlr