hiya yeah yanno the thing where i said that this would be website templates? well ignore that this is gonna be whatever i want now lol
actually i might not finish this either cus im lazy also im meant to be working on my english

Defamation is material that lowers someone's reputation. The onus in a defamation case is on the plaintiff, and the standard of proof is the balance of probability.

To sue for defamation, the material must meet three criteria:

It is of defamatory matter;

An imputation is considered defamatory if it lowers the reputation of the plaintiff, negatively affects the plaintiff's trade, profession, or business, or causes ridicule or avoidment towards the plaintiff from other people.

It must easily identify the plaintiff;

The plaintiff can even be referred to by initial if it is obvious of the identity of the defamed person.

It was published to a third-party.

Publication can take several forms, such as speech, writing, images, recordings, or gestures. As long as it was somehow communicated to someone else, it meets the criteria.

Defences to a defamation claim include:

Justification (absolute truth)

if it is true then you get off scott free

Contextual truth

parts of statement can be wrong but the actual defamatory part was true

Honest opinion (fair comment)

reviews and stuff

The remedies in a defamation case are:

General damages,

awarded for the loss of reputation and general hurt feelings, capped at $500,000

Aggrevated damages,

awarded if the defendant's conduct was especially bad or malicious

Special damages,

calculated and awarded to cover financial loss from missed or lost work and/or medical or counselling bills

And in rare cases, exemplary damages.

used to punish the defendant