If you or your business have been affected by online defamation, you can file a lawsuit and be awarded damages in many cases. If you’re unfamiliar with this legal term, damages can be explained as the remedy requested to make up for the wrongful act (defamation, in this case). The court will impose damages if they find that a party breached a duty under contract or violated someone’s rights.
The types of damages that can be awarded in defamation cases fall into the following categories:
- Compensatory damages (also known as actual damages)
- Nominal damages
- Punitive damages
- Attorneys’ fees
- Content removal
Each category will be explained further below.
Compensatory or Actual Damages
Compensatory damages make up the majority of compensation awarded in online defamation cases. These damages aim to provide compensation to the individual or business for financial harm that has occurred due to defamatory statements.
However, there are two sub-categories of compensatory damages:
1.) Economic Damages: the financial losses stemming from the defamatory conduct. This could include loss of income, loss of clientele, and/or expenses associated with handling the defamatory statements.
2.) Non-Economic Damages: Losses that stem from the defamatory conduct but that cannot easily be stated in a dollar amount. For example, this could be related to damages to a business’s reputation or brand. It may also include compensation for emotional distress or mental anguish, which can be just as damaging as financial losses in some instances.
Nominal Damages
If no financial losses were incurred as a result of defamation, the victim can still pursue nominal damages. If awarded, the symbolic amount of one dollar is usually paid to the victim, but more importantly, the court’s ruling will state that the statements made by the defendant were defamatory and false.
Punitive damages
Punitive damages are intended to punish the wrongdoer by making them pay the victim more than what they have suffered. In other words, punitive damages are meant to set an example. They are rarely awarded in online defamation cases, but they can be awarded when actual malice has been found behind the defamation. Actual malice is the term used when the person making the defamatory statement either knew the statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether the statement was true or false.
Attorneys’ fees
Attorneys’ fees can be expensive, but businesses or individuals who have been defamed can demand that the wrongdoer pay these fees and the court may very well award them. This operates under the understanding that, if it weren’t for the defamatory statements, the business or individual never would have had to hire an attorney in the first place.
Content Removal
Lastly, victims of online defamation can demand that the libelous statements about them be removed from the internet as part of their lawsuit. For businesses especially, removing information from news articles or deleting defamatory posts on social media is a primary goal in filing the lawsuit in the first place. After all, winning a defamation case but leaving the false statements online will only serve to further harm the business or individual.