The Gentleman’s Lawyer addresses the topic of defamation

Dear Gentleman’s Lawyer,

I have recently been in a tricky business situation. I will spare you the details, not least because I would prefer to stay anonymous. It concerns the ownership of a company, and my ex-business partner’s recent behaviour.

A few years ago, I started a company with a friend. As time went on, the vision that we each had for the business became more and more dissimilar, although we were doing well and making a good profit after year 2 and with a lot more potential to fulfil.

3 months ago my friend felt side-lined by me, and decided to leave the company and start up on his own. We agreed a fee for me to buy his equity, but with some recent success, he has returned and demanded more money.

He will not let it drop and has been bad-mouthing me to friends and mutual business contacts. Needless to say this is not good for me or my business.

Please can you suggest how I can deal with this?

Many thanks!, Anonymous Reader

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Dear Anonymous Reader,

You have two problems here: how to resolve the issue that your former business partner has come back for more money, and second, that he or she is damaging your reputation. It is the second that I will focus on for this article.

There isn’t much that is more important to a Gentleman than his reputation, especially in business, and as the quote says: “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it” – it is fragile.

Everyone wants to avoid a bad reputation. It is the law of defamation that you need to consider in order to obtain the remedy you may deserve.

DEFAMATION: THE LAW

A successful claim of defamation leads to a remedy of damages, i.e. financial compensation, and publication that the wrongful party’s statements were defamatory.

What to prove

There are two requirements: (i) the person or company making the claim must be named or identifiable in the statement made, which (ii) is published, and (iii) is made in a manner which causes the claiming party loss in their trade or profession, or causes a reasonable person to think worse of him, her or them.

Once the above is satisfied, it is for person that made the statement to prove otherwise.

Defences

The most common defences are that the statement is (a) substantially true, or (b) was made in the form of an opinion and indicated, whether in general or specific terms, the basis of the opinion, and that an honest person could have held the opinion on the basis of any fact which existed at the time the statement complained of was published.

THE LAW APPLIED

Looking at your situation, you need to collect copies of the statements made by your ex-business partner to others, and show that those others regard you in a lesser way or that your business has lost contracts or other deals because of the statements made by him or her.

Obtaining evidence that your reputation has been damaged is the hard part. The most effective way is by finding any blogs or other content on the Internet that discusses you or your business in a negative way. In addition, if you have close mutual contacts, they may assist.

Proving defamation without the other party successfully using one of the defences available is difficult. It is law that goes against the spirit of free speech, and for that reason it is usually only ever brought to the courts in the most well-publicised cases, such as Plebgate.

If you want to discuss any of the above further, then please do not hesitate to contact me at lawyer@thegentlemansjournal.com or @TheGentsLawyer

Please note that this article is intended to give the reader guidance of the law of England & Wales, and should not be considered as specific legal advice. By relying on the content of the article, the reader understands the risk that it may not be correct law related to their specific situation and that they will have no grounds for a negligence or misrepresentation claim against The Gentleman’s Journal Ltd. or any other legal entity. Should you wish for professional legal advice specific to your situation, please contact The Gentleman’s Lawyer at lawyer@gentlemansjournal.com