Defamation and Media

The lawyers in Lawson Lundell’s Defamation and Media Group are experienced counsel who are called upon regularly by clients to apply their skills and experience in relation to libel, copyright and other aspects of media law. Members of the group are also frequent contributors to the legal and other literatures. Thus, the work of the members of the firm’s Defamation and Media Law Group is informed by a body of expertise drawn directly from current experience in professional writing, editing and publishing.

Members of the group have acted as counsel in pursuing and defending claims for defamation and are frequently consulted for advice in connection with libel and slander, Privacy Act, copyright and other issues that involve the activities of the print or electronic media and, increasingly, the Internet.

Experience

Examples of work done in defamation law and media law include:

• Successfully defended a $53-million defamation action involving an international mining project. (MonumentMining Ltd. Balendran, Chong & Bodi, 2012, BCSC 1769)
• Successful defence of a defamation claim alleging malice against three medical professionals in the context of their work in a specialized hospital team. (Lewis v. Abel and others, 2007 BCSC 604)
• A case involving a successful trial and appellate defence of a claim for defamation brought by one professional against others. (Schut v. Magee, 2003 BCCA 417)
• Successfully defended a $53-million defamation action involving an international mining project
• Represented both plaintiffs and defendants in defamation actions involving the print and online media
• Representing the BC Civil Liberties Assn. before the Supreme Court of Canada in opposing a publication ban over allegedly defamatory speech
• Representing a website owner in the first case in Canada and the Commonwealth to enforce passive (or “browse wrap”) online terms of use and related copyright claims
• Representing prominent physicians in actions concerning allegedly defamatory statements made by them and other medical staff about other prominent physicians
• Representing an international publishing company and author in a copyright infringement action
• Representing a non-profit charitable body in a defamation action against a collection of its critics who have posted materials on a website that the body claims are defamatory
• Representing an internationally recognised rock music star in relation to threats by a collaborator at an early stage of his career to advertise and profit from the unauthorised reproduction and sale of early performance tapes
• Representing a trade publication in relation to content published in its pages that allegedly defamed the members of an industry association
• Representing an industrial corporation in relation to allegedly defamatory content in correspondence and a website operated by a municipal government concerning disputed and unproven regulatory infractions
• Representing the trustees of a major public pension plain in relation to allegedly defamatory content in a “human interest” story broadcast by a major local television network
• Representing the trustees of a major public pension plan in relation to allegedly defamatory content displayed on the internet by an interest group of disaffected members
• Representing a local newspaper in a defamation action brought by an operator of bingo halls licensed to operate for charitable purposes
• Representing a national newspaper in a Privacy Act action brought by several plaintiffs in connection with an advertisement that made use of their photographs without their consent
• Representing a multinational mining company in a dispute with a national television network in connection with allegedly defamatory content in a news story that the network had threatened to run on a segment of its nightly news broadcast
• Defending claims brought by the Canadian Private Copying Collective

Team