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Libel/Slander/Defamation

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This site will give you all the relevant law in relation to Defamation including direct access to the Defamation Act 1992.

But we will also give you two case studies including access to the actual Court Documents and the written submissions of the Lawyer opening each case to the Court.

We will give you sample documents from real cases.

The purpose of this site is to empower you with knowledge and therefore save yourself big money. 

The information on this site will help you :

.  .  .  decide whether you have a case.

.  .  .  decide whether you have not got a case.

.  .  .  do it yourself.

.  .  .  do at least all the preparation work yourself

SAVE a great deal of money by studying this site.

The first thing to understand is this.  Although you could often have heard the words "libel and slander"  these terms are not frequently referred to in New Zealand. 

Our law uses the term defamation and it is the New Zealand Law of Defamation that you need to look at to understand your rights and duties

Technically, slander is the term given when you are defamed orally and libel is the term given when you are defamed in writing.

But NetLaw gives you here an in depth look at our overall law of defamation and what you can do if you feel you have been wronged.

A defamation claim is a claim you can make if you believe you have been defamed.  If somebody says or writes something about you which damages your reputation then you have been defamed.

You can make a claim for damages sometimes measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

We have a specialized Index topic entitled  The first part of this topic has been displayed free of charge. Join up for $45 to have access to this and all other topics!


Feedback/Reviews/Blogs
"I got so much from this site. You are right. It is better to "upskill" myself first before paying megabucks to a lawyer just to get an opinion.

I liked access to the case law and the real life submissions. Tim Shadbolt's case was a dag. How much did he get? Bud. Auckland"

Feedback/Blogs/Reviews from related topic: Court Costs - Win Or Lose
"It's not fair that when you win a case you still have to beg a judge to award you costs and even then the award is always less than you have to pay your lawyer. This happened to me. My lawyer told me that there's always two sides to a story but the judge didn't recognise any validity in the other side's claim yet the nett result is that I recover only about 60% of my costs to my lawyer and the other 40% is about half of what I won in the case. That isn't justice. A real pissed off Kevin J. - Auckland - June 2007"
"NETLAW replies. Yes, we agree. What you need to do in these cases is make an Application for "Full and Reasonable Costs" and argue that the Court should (it can) make a full award. You need to convince a Judge that the other side never really has a chance of winning and that it is unfair that you should have to pay any costs. That is the way it is in the UK and Australia. But in New Zealand, it is usually only a percentage of the costs that you get back. That is unfair in many many cases. NETLAW - June 2007"
Feedback/Blogs/Reviews from related topic: Court Costs - Win Or Lose
"Bloody useful and practical. I sued for the recovery of money owing to me by a former friend. He owed me &11,000 so I could not use the Disputes Tribunal. I used a simple Statement of Claim. I forgot the Notice of Proceeding and the Court helped me but I then noticed that you had one on Netlaw. Your documents helped me and the Court staff were pretty good too. Cheers . . . Colin Dunedin - May 2007"
Feedback/Blogs/Reviews from related topic: Court Costs - Win Or Lose
"I am a retired Solicitor from Kent in England and the $45 I spent on your site was really helpful because I am intending settling in New Zealand and your "one stop shop" was a real boon to me. Thanks again. Arnold T. Devon, England"
Feedback/Blogs/Reviews from related topic: Court Costs - Win Or Lose
"I found this interesting. I want to sue for punitive damages and I was interested to learn that our courts are pretty conservative. I think the Welfare have quite wrongly taken my kids and I have found out that the affidavit they gave to a Judge to get an order to uplift them was known to the Welfare to be incorrect. They told the Judge that I had drug convictions but when I found out 5 months ago that they thought that I proved then to them that this was untrue yet I have now found that they have still put this false evidence in an affidavit. But they have also told other people about my "drug convictions". You have to watch these people. (name witheld) - May 2007"
Feedback/Blogs/Reviews from related topic: Court Costs - Win Or Lose
"I'm making an enquiry on behalf of a relative who is paying child support for a person who is in his mid 30s now, the inland revenue who he is making these payments to told me it is not child support it is spouse support payments and he needs to go back to court to have the order changed. Who do we call now as he is not on a good income and should qualify for legal aid.

Netlaw replies: Yes, Spousal Maintenance is different from Child Support. The Family Court deals with Spousal maintenance but the IRD (Child Support Division) deals with kid's maintenance. Choose any family court lawyer and if he earns less than about $33,000 he should get legal aid."

Feedback/Blogs/Reviews from related topic: Court Costs - Win Or Lose
"Great. See the other topics on Statement of Claim -Some Examples - Graeme - Tauranga"
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