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Damages Available in Internet Defamation Cases

Business victims of internet defamation can file a lawsuit, invoke their rights, and recover compensation for the defamatory conduct. The compensation that businesses can recover will depend on their damages, and aims to put them back in the position they were in, before they were defamed online.

Proving damages is a big part of a business victim's internet defamation case. Those damages fall into a variety of categories:

  • Compensatory damages, also known as actual damages
  • Nominal damages
  • Punitive damages
  • Attorneys' fees
  • Content removal

COMPENSATORY, OR ACTUAL, DAMAGES

In internet defamation cases, compensatory damages make up the lion's share of the compensation that business victims stand to receive. As the name implies, compensatory damages aim to compensate the business for the financial harm that they have suffered from the defamatory statements.

There are two sub-categories of compensatory damages: Economic and non-economic damages.

ECONOMIC DAMAGES

A business victim's economic damages are the financial losses that stemmed from the defamatory conduct. For businesses that have been defamed online, they typically include things like:

  • Loss of income
  • Loss of business clientele
  • Expenses associated with handling the defamatory statements

NON-ECONOMIC DAMAGES

Non-economic damages are the losses that stem from the defamatory conduct, but which cannot easily be stated in a dollar amount. For businesses, this will focus on recovering compensation for damage to the business' reputation, including harm to the business' brand.

However, in some cases, it can also include compensation for the business owner's:

  • Emotional distress
  • Mental anguish

Just because these types of suffering cannot be easily stated in financial terms does not mean that they did not happen. The damage to your company's reputation and brand from the online defamation is often one of the most difficult aspects of the ordeal.

NOMINAL DAMAGES

Just because internet defamation did not inflict financial suffering on your business does not mean that it was not defamatory. In these cases, where the business stands to recover few, if any, compensatory damages, they can still pursue nominal damages. If successful, the company will likely recover very little money – often just one dollar – but win a court's ruling that says the statements about the business were defamatory and false.

PUNITIVE DAMAGES

While most types of compensation aim to put the business back in the place it was in before the defamation occurred, punitive damages are meant to punish the wrongdoer by making them pay the company more than what it has suffered.

Because they are so extreme, courts will rarely award punitive damages unless there was actual malice behind the defamation. Even then, business victims are less likely to recover punitive damages that individual victims of defamation.

ATTORNEYS' FEES

Businesses that have been defamed online can also demand that the person making the false statements pay for their attorneys' fees. After all, if it were not for their defamatory statements, the business would not have had to hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit over the online libel.

CONTENT REMOVAL

Finally, corporate victims of online defamation can demand that the libelous statements be removed as a part of their lawsuit. Especially for businesses, removing information from news articles or deleting defamatory posts on social media is one of the primary goals of filing an online defamation lawsuit. Winning a defamation case but leaving the false statements on the internet can prolong the financial harm that they cause.

MASSACHUSETTS INTERNET DEFAMATION LAWYERS AT THE KATZ LAW GROUP

If your business is being defamed online, call the Katz Law Group at (508) 480-8202 or contact them online.

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We focus on preventative counseling, objective advice and guiding our clients toward strategies for mitigating risk while efficiently and effectively conducting business. Call today for a consultation.

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