O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors has represented clients who have made defamation claims as well as defending clients who have been subject to defamation claims. Read about the cases below.
Suing for Defamation Claims
Compensation for defamation following false imputations of criminal activity: BPS
The news outlets had run a story regarding the arrest of a Mr. QTX for conspiring to import substantial quantities of drugs into Australia. In that story they had featured images from an old television commercial that discussed QTX’s successful immigration story. This commercial featured images of QTX, but also images of BPS. The story the news outlets ran showed the images of BPS and said that he was QTX. This gave the impression that BPS was the man arrested for conspiring to import substantial quantities of drugs into Australia
YBJ – Client receives settlement sum after defamation on Facebook
YBJ, the Plaintiff, was defamed by a post by Channel 7 and a subsequent comment on the TV channel’s Facebook page. The post and comment wrongly portrayed him as the owner of a furniture shop who acted fraudulently.
LA – Client receives compensation from newspaper following false allegations
LA, a Public Housing tenant, recently discovered defamatory material published in an Australian newspaper, regarding their alleged unhygienic treatment of the consecutive homes they resided in. We successfully acted for LA in obtaining a settlement between both parties.
SD v XY Pty Ltd – Client receives compensation for defamation and breach of privacy claims
A media organisation in NT published several photos of SD on the front page of their newspaper with a headline and article concerning young offenders. Our firm successfully assisted SD in suing the media organisation for defamation and breach of privacy. SD was compensated appropriately.
Nationwide News v Vass – Appeal of ‘counter offer’ against client dismissed
This case concerned an appeal by the defendant claiming our client did not validly accept the second offer of amends as put forth by the defendant. Our firm successfully proved that our client’s acceptance of an offer was not a ‘counter offer’ and as a result the appeal was dismissed with costs.
AJ – Defamation claim against employer
Our client filed a defamation complain against his employer after a report had circulated around the company. The report implied that AJ had committed acts of vandalism. Thus falsely imputing that he was a vandal and criminal. His employer agreed to settle and issued an apology letter.
RK v Healey & ABC – Damages awarded for false statements made against client
Aboriginal elder RK sued previous Young Australian of the Year nominee Rebecca Healey and ABC News for making false statements about alleged comments that she had made. In fact she had not made the comments at all. The firm successfully proved that RK had never made those comments. As a result she was awarded compensation.
AMQ – News article incorrectly uses client’s photo
AMQ found that a news report had published his photo when the article was about a different person. We assisted AMQ to sue the publisher and arranged a negotiation which resulted in an apology and compensation.
Defence against Defamation Claims
Esther Rockett successfully defended being sued for defamation by alleged health guru, Serge Benhayon
In 2004, Rockett attended a variety of events run by a new-age healthcare business, Universal Medicine, headed by Serge Benhayon. A former tennis coach, and now self-styled “complementary medicine practitioner”, Benhayon practiced hands-on “healing” techniques (comparable to a massage). He also taught a variety of new-age religious and philosophical mantras, under the umbrella term of Esoteric Healing. She investigated him, published her findings, and was sued for defamation.
MXM – Defence representation in defamation settlement
We represented a news publication who was sued for defamation. We helped MXM to negotiate an effective settlement which reduced the amount of compensation that the plaintiff had asked for at trial.
WH – Client accepts Concerns Notice after defaming politician on Facebook
We advised our client to accept a Concerns Notice after he posted defamatory material of a politician on Facebook. Recent damages awards suggest the defamed persons would have been awarded in excess of $100,000 if the matter proceeded to trial.
