In Illinois, a defamation claim generally has three elements that the plaintiff the must prove in order to recover: (1) a false statement about the plaintiff; (2) made to a third party (also known as publication); (3) that harms the plaintiff's reputation.
In Illinois, a plaintiff must file a defamation lawsuit within one year after the defamatory statement was made, so it is important act quickly. To speak with one of our experienced defamation litigation attorneys, call us at (630) 560-1123 or visit us at our website at .DGLLC/contact.
If you decide to do it alone, your letter should state the specific defamatory statements made, confirm that they are defamatory, indicate the reputational harm caused, demand an apology and retraction of those statements, and demand that they cease making further statements failing which you will sue them.
Generally, to win a defamation lawsuit, you must prove that: Someone made a statement; The statement was published; The statement caused your injury; The statement was false; and. The statement did not fall into a privileged category.
Under Illinois law, you may have a claim for defamation if you can prove that someone made a false statement about you. If you win, you may be entitled to economic and punitive damages. The law of defamation, however, is complicated and there are numerous defenses to defamation claims.
Although criminal defamation under section 194 of the Penal Code was declared unconstitutional by the High Court in 2017, the publication of false information which is likely to harm the reputation of a person is a criminal offence under section 23 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act (the CMCA).
Under Illinois law, you may have a claim for defamation if you can prove that someone made a false statement about you. If you win, you may be entitled to economic and punitive damages. The law of defamation, however, is complicated and there are numerous defenses to defamation claims.
A public figure must prove that a Defendant acted with 'actual malice' in publishing a false statement about the plaintiff. Actual malice means that the person either knew the statement was false or showed such reckless disregard for the truth that they should have known the statement was false.
In order to state a claim for defamation under Illinois law, the plaintiff must show that the defendant made a false statement concerning plaintiff, that there was an unprivileged publication of the defamatory statement to a third party by the defendant and that the plaintiff was damaged.
Illinois defines defamation as a false statement of fact about the plaintiff “published,” which means shared with another person, that harms the plaintiff's reputation (i.e. lowers the plaintiff in the eyes of the community). There are two categories of defamation in Illinois: defamation per se and defamation per quod.