Law 101 for Writers

Excerpted from Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction, published 2008 by W. W. Norton. A succinct but rich compendium of ideas, terms, and techniques, this book provides all the information writers need to write with verve while remaining true to their story.

DEFAMATION AND LIBEL

HERE ARE TWO important tenets of libel law every writer should know: (1) no matter how scurrilous, if what you say is true, it cannot be libel; and (2) generally speaking, you can’t libel a dead person.

Libel is defined as a false and defamatory statement, in writing, concerning another, which has been negligently published to a third party. In other words, if John sends a letter about Amy to Amy, that isn’t libel. But if John sends a letter about Amy to another person, or publishes the letter in a newspaper or other public forum, his words may be libelous—depending on what he’s saying about Amy.

Defamatory, in legal terms, means tending to harm the reputation of the person who is the subject of the statement. We’re talking about a statement that is more than just embarrassing or annoying; to be libelous, it must be the kind of statement that