Education, not legal advice

Defamation Update is an educational resource.  Our content is not legal advice.  By using the site, you are not entering into a lawyer-client relationship with the editor or any contributor.

If you believe you have been defamed or you are accused of defamation, you should obtain formal legal advice tailored to your particular circumstances.  Hopefully our site will give you some insight into your position—and might even save you some legal costs—but defamation cases often turn on subtle factual or legal distinctions.  The same words or allegations that give rise to a successful claim in one case, might end with a different result in another.  A defence might succeed in one case, yet fail in another upon almost identical facts.  Add to that, the law and procedural rules are constantly evolving.

Liability

We won’t be liable for any damages, losses, costs or expenses of any kind which arise out of, or result from, the use of, or inability to use, our site or any other website or publisher to which we hyperlink or otherwise refer.  We endeavour to keep our Legal Guide current and accurate, but we don’t accept any responsibility to do so.  Our Court Decisions provide comprehensive records, but they’re not exhaustive.  Our Posts reflect our interpretation of the law when they were written; some of our comments have been overtaken by legal developments, and others we wouldn’t necessarily agree with today.

This website is governed by, and is to be interpreted in accordance with, New Zealand law.  Any claims or disputes will be resolved in the New Zealand courts.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we won’t be liable for any failure of our site to comply with the laws of any other jurisdiction.

International readers

Much of our content will have some value and application for our international readers, particularly those in the Pacific, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Caribbean, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.  And we really value the networks we have built with, and the feedback we have received from, our overseas readers over the years.  Always just keep in mind that our content is written from a New Zealand legal perspective.

Copyright

We reserve all our rights for our original content and design.  That said, we’re usually happy for users to republish our content, provided they:

• obtain our prior permission,
• provide a credit to Defamation Update,
• provide our URL (a hyperlink is fine),
• and inform their readers about any abridgements.

You don’t need permission to share our posts via social media, or provide links to our other content – it’s not a copyright infringement, and in fact we encourage it.