Re: Garden Design

**Margaret Lauterbach melauter@earthlink.net>**


>
>The defense against libel and slander is, and always has been, "truth and 
>the absence of malice." Both conditions must be met. Truth alone won't 
>necessarily do it.
>
>In the conversation at hand, if we assume that the facts are correct, than 
>absence of malice is automatic because the writer was sharing important 
>information with others who need to know it. However, if the facts are not 
>correct, then absence of malice won't protect him from lack of truth.
>
>What makes libel law different is that the burdon of proof is on the 
>defendent. That is, if you are sued, you have to prove that your 
>statements were both true and lacking in malice.
>
>
>Brook
This is an international list, and you're talking about the situation in 
U.S. law without specifying it as such.  I am not a lawyer, and neither are 
you.  IIRC truth is not a defense in trade libel, but neither of us should 
be dogmatic about  what is "the law" and what is not. Margaret Lauterbach

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