Commencing in July 2021, Australia's defamation laws were
amended, requiring the plaintiff to prove that alleged defamatory
publications caused or were likely to cause "serious
harm" to the plaintiff's reputation. This introduces a new
"serious harm element" to a defamation claim.
These amendments came into effect on 1 July 2021 and have been
adopted by all states and territories except for Western Australia
and Northern Territory.
In this blog, we look at a recent case of Martin v Najem [2022] NSWDC 479
("Martin v Najem"), which is the first case where the
court has considered the serious harm element since the legislative
reform in July 2021.
What is defamation?
Defamation is the publication of defamatory matter about a
person to a third party that causes serious harm to that
person's reputation. The "defamatory matter" can be
any communication, including written comments, verbal statements,
videos, social media posts and blogging.
