Accusations of fraud can be serious business. In today’s marketplace we absorb so much competitive information that we tend to dismiss most of it as noise. But when negative chatter goes too far it can ruin reputations and cause enormous professional harm. To keep that in check, while balancing the protection of free expression, New York has developed a complex body of law on defamation. That law continues to evolve with new kinds of speech and new outlets for publication.

To start with, in New York, it is slander per se to make a false statement of fact that (1) accuses a person of a serious crime; (2) tends to injure a person in his or her trade, business or profession; (3) accuses a person of having a “loathsome disease”; or (4) “imput[es] unchastity to a woman.”1 Slander “per se” means that no special damages need to be pleaded, because the harm to the victim is presumed as a matter of law. But even in those cases, many defenses exist. True statements and statements of opinion cannot be the basis for a claim; statements about public figures enjoy a qualified privilege and are only actionable if made with malice; discussions between people on subjects of “common interest” enjoy that same qualified privilege; and there are many other protections and exceptions, often requiring detailed factual analysis.

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