Libel definitions
Terms
undefined, object
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- Actual Damages
- Actual injury; can be award for such injuries as harm to reputation, humiliation and mental anguish.
- slander
- a false statement, not fixed in a tangible medium, that harms a person's or an organization's repution.
- special damages
- Awarded to libel plaintiffs to compensate them for out-of-pocket or pecuniary (ecomonic) harm.
- trier of fact
- The peoson or people appointed to hear the evidence and determine the truth from it.
- libel per se
- in and of itself
- libel per quod
- libel by innuendo. Seemingly harmless language that is defamatory to those who know unstated extrinsic facts
- libel
- the unjust exposure of someone to public ridicule or hatred. Libel is defamation stated in a tangible medium-print, photograph, broadcast script, et cetera.
- actual malice
- publication of defamatory material w/ knowledge of its falsity or reckless disregard for the truth
- reckless disregard
- publication of defamatory nateruak w/ serious doubts as to its truth
- Burden of proof
- The duty to prove a claim in adversary proceeding. In libel actions against the media, the plaintiffs must prove the defamatory material is false, rather than media defendants having to prove it true.
- Nominal damages
- are a symbolic amount, succh as $1, recognizing that the person was defamed but that no real harm occured
- General damages
- are awarded to compensate for losses that cannot necesssarily be measured
- punitive damages
- are designed to send a message to defendants and to punish them for the libel