Why do plaintiffs prefer U.K. courts to bring defamation claims?
The U.K. defamation standard is favorable to plaintiffs for several reasons. The first is this presumption of innocence in favor of the plaintiff, which is almost the reverse of the approach taken by U.S. courts. Since newspapers and other publishers are often unable to clearly prove the truth of all the information they receive, or unwilling to reveal all source or informants, it’s very difficult for defendants to overcome this presumption. While more restrictive guidelines have been recent years, damage awards for British defamation claims are virtually unlimited and often result in very large damage awards, placing very strong financial pressures on the news media to limit free speech. The jurisdictional requirements to enter U.K. courts are also very lenient, finding sufficient “publication” within England when a few subscribers or internet viewers may have been the only ones to read the statement. English courts may then hear and decide a case regardless of the claimant or defenda
