Is an injunction always the best way to respond to online reputation attacks?

The answer would depend on who you are up against as well as what exactly motivates your enemies to tarnish your reputation.

Injunctions to stop online reputation attacks will normally be most appropriate against companies as well as individuals who are generally speaking, law abiding people even if their posts are motivated by a sense of injustice.



Injunction - Internet defamation



A mere threat of an injunction which is coupled with reiteration of the costs that are involved in defending it, is normally sufficient to act as a deterrent and to bring a defamatory case to its successful end.

The trouble of course is what to do when dealing with unscrupulous individuals who consider themselves as having nothing to lose, who are willing to disobey Court orders or who are outside the realm of the jurisdiction of the High Court.

An injunction against further publications of defamatory remarks by those sorts of people could be a complete waste of money and may not necessarily get you any closer to achieving your objectives.

Each defamatory post must be looked at very carefully and if an injunction is to be sought, it is better sought against the companies which are behind the websites where the libellous remarks are published because they are more likely to respond positively to a removal request.

An injunction threat against the owner of a website or even against the Internet Service Provider could produce very good results because these organisations have nothing to gain from litigating with you, but they can lose a lot.

 

Find out other ways to respond to internet defamation at the Internet Law Centre.