Here’s a sketchy but interesting report on a large defamation judgment handed down against a South Carolina blogger. According to the report, a referee appointed by a South Carolina judge set damages for injury to reputation at $800,000 and punitive damages of $1 million for a blogger’s defamatory statements about a South Carolina ad agency head.

There may be much hand wringing about this report, so it’s worth discussion.

From an early age, we all learn about the value of a person’s reputation. It’s an ancient value protected in many realms. The ancients revered it. Religious texts talk about it. It’s protected by various old court cases in many legal systems.  State constitutions commonly protect reputation interests along with property rights.

Many of these old sources remind us of what we know. Damage to reputation made by false statement is difficult if not impossible to fix. Or as better put in a statement incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

For that reason, most western legal systems recognize a claim for damages arising out of false statements made the damage reputations. The modern name given is defamation.

Defamation claims generally require proof that a statement was made, that it was false, and that it caused injury to a person’s reputation. There are a bunch of other legal rules that come into play in modern defamation claims, which is simply a way of acknowledging that the summary here isn’t precise.

Now onward.

Whether you make false and defamatory statements by whisper, in a handbill posted on a wall, in the newspaper, on your blog, via Twitter, on the scoreboard at the ballpark, or to all of your Facebook friends, the effect is the same.  The lie has traveled half way around the world….

I have some questions about this case. I don’t practice law in South Carolina, so my questions are more about the rules that apply. In South Carolina, the referee and judge set damages. Here in Oregon, damages would be up to a jury.

There is also a First Amendment question about whether it’s right to award punitive damages in a case like this. Punitive damages punish an actor for bad conduct. They are added to damages assessed to pay for the harms and losses suffered by an injured person.  There’s an interesting tension in First Amendment cases. Where does the need to protect the right of free speech end? At what point does the constitution allow punishment for speech?

Not enough information here to assess, but it’s an interesting case. The takeaway for those of us who blog is that defamation rules apply.  But there’s really little different here from earlier days, other than the speed and distance which a lie can travel on the internet.

David Sugerman