A business thrives on its products and services – and it depends on the company’s quality. If a company provides the best quality services and satisfies customers with its products, it will have booming trades. However, when their competitors publish untruths to compete, and their statements harm the business, the victim company can hire the best Injurious falsehood lawyers in WA and claim for the damages they suffered.
The Australian legislature, however, differentiates between injurious falsehood claims and defamation cases, where the latter is related to the reputation of the affected individual. Let us know about these topics in detail.
What is injurious falsehood, and what falls under it?
Consider companies A and B, where B enjoys more business and financial gain than A. So, A makes untrue statements about the goods and services B provides. This action of publishing false statements about one’s service or goods is injurious falsehood, and the affected company or individual can consult with injurious falsehood claim lawyers in Perth and claim damages.
In court, the party making false representations will be called the defendant (A in the above example), and the affected party (B in the previously mentioned example) will be called the plaintiff. The statements or representations can be either spoken or in writing, and they must influence others to stop dealing with the plaintiff, resulting in financial damage and suffering. The injurious falsehood cases concentrate on a person’s ability to trade goods and services while doing business.
You can hire defamation lawyers in WA to claim justice against fabricated statements and disapproving remarks about the title or quality of land. Similarly, statements untruthfully claiming that the plaintiff isn’t in business anymore, whereas they probably are, can create a dangerous falsehood case. The plaintiff may start a case and recover the economic damages they have suffered.
What do you need to present to prove injurious falsehood?
The elements you will need to prove so that you can claim an injurious falsehood case are mentioned below:
The plaintiff’s defamation solicitors must prove a false statement regarding the plaintiff’s goods or business. The standard of proof of any false statement lies in the balance of probabilities, meaning the plaintiff must prove that the publication of a false statement is most likely. The statement’s truthfulness will depend on the overall circumstance of the case, which is also a question of fact.
The next factor that a lawyer must prove in an injurious falsehood case is that the defendant had malicious intent behind the publicized false statement, meaning there was a clear intent to inflict harm upon the plaintiff. The maliciousness of the statement will depend upon the situation of the statement publication, whereas its existence can be worked out through a particular text’s context.
For example, let us assume that A’s company depends on contractual work with different computer firms. B envies A and wants to harm him. However, she sends an untrue email to all the firms A deals with about A’s system having a virus. Here, her malicious intent is clear in making the publication, and her intention to inflict damage on A can be reasonably inferred.
The plaintiff must publicize the statement – a statement made by the defendant only to the plaintiff will not establish injurious falsehood. The statement doesn’t need nationwide publication, although extensive broadcasting will make a successful claim more possible. The most experienced defamation lawyers in WA will have to prove transmission to third parties other than the plaintiff or the defendant. One can prove many ways to demonstrate the statement publication.
What aspects will the court consider?
The court may consider the following points while assessing the extent of damage to the plaintiff:
- The publication’s extent
- The affected business’s size
- The wrong statement’s severity
- The probable informal diffusion of the false proclamation
- The effect on the plaintiff’s status
- Whether the defendant has attempted to apologise and repair the damage.
In conclusion
The assessment of damages in injurious falsehood cases is complex because the plaintiff must prove a cause-and-effect relationship. The court will generally award the actual loss the plaintiff has suffered. The court must be assured of the loss sustained by the plaintiff because of the publication of the false statement, which is impossible to establish. Therefore, knowing your rights and obligations is important before going to court.
