What are the laws on libel in UK?
Libel through e-mail from Australia relating to a slapping done in Australia on a hysterical female.
if its source is Australia, theres nothing you can do as Australia is outside the jurisdiction of the British courts
depends on which part of UK
Answers:
Where the slapping was done, and to whom, is irrelevant to libel.
Libel involves publishing material relating to a person (or other legal entity) which is untrue and defamatory and which either reduces or would tend to reduce their reputation in the eyes of the community at large. (Actually, it's a little more involved than this, but for the purposes of this answer it's a working definition).
So, if the libelous email was about you and it was sent to you (and no-one else) then it is not defamatory because it has not been published to anyone else.
If it were sent to all your work-mates and you were sacked as a result of it's content, then you would have a potential claim and some loss.
The main problem with bringing a libel.defamation claim is
(i) the cost and
(ii) for 'ordinary' people (as opposed to 'famous' people), they would have some difficulty showing that they had a reputation in the community which had been damaged by the libel.
Hope this helps.
It's common law. Libel has to be untrue and harmful to the target.
Slapping is not libelous...it is assault.
Just a little legal point.
contact the citizen advice office, they are great, also they will have all the information you need, all the best
its a rich mans territory. if you can afford an expensive legal team you can put forward a case that almost anything is libellous. its usually the gutter press and so called super stars with egos as big as their wallets who bother going to court.
