defamation by Newspaper

[lwatts]

My son was attacked by some visiting non-students in his college dormitory and badly injured. The local paper printed an article on the event in which they stated that he made a "deragatory remark" to the attackers. All witnesses, the police report and my son indicate that no such thing occured.

Do I have a valid basis for a suit against the paper?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

If all is as you say, then you absolutely have a case against the newspaper. You may wish to discuss the matter with the newspaper to prompt settlement and release retracting the story (make sure it gets good placement.) If they don't want to settle then you may want to see an attorney. Much also depends upon the circulation of the paper and how much money they may or may not have. You will also want to sue the reporter personally as well in the event he/she had no source for the information and included it just for inflammatory purposes to sell papers.

What you should do is also think practically -- how many people actually read the article? How much damage was really caused? If this is a university paper you may want to discuss with the university since they may have responsibility and see if there might be better settlement going that route but be prepared to hire an attorney if you feel the damages are that severe.

Originally posted by lwatts
My son was attacked by some visiting non-students in his college dormitory and badly injured. The local paper printed an article on the event in which they stated that he made a "deragatory remark" to the attackers. All witnesses, the police report and my son indicate that no such thing occured.

Do I have a valid basis for a suit against the paper?