Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:55:55

From: Andrew Dickinson

Subject: Reputation

What about claiming that the child has an infectious disease? Would this expose the child to "hatred, ridicule and contempt"?

The difficulty, I suspect, is not in giving examples of defamatory statements, but in assessing damage. Although a child may have certain natural characteristics (parenthood, health and well-being) which create a reputation, any damage to that reputation by defamatory words is likely to be transitory and to cause no permanent injury to the child itself.

It is also possible that a statement about a child may, directly or by innuendo, defame one or both of its parents.

Hope that this is of some use, although I would not claim to be a defamation expert either.

Kind regards
Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Stevens
Sent: 24 March 2005 09:44
Subject: ODG: Reputation

Is it possible to defame a new born baby? In is possible to defame someone in utero? The only example I can think of is calling a child a 'bastard'. Is a reputation something we can only acquire over time? Are there any cases?

Defamation is an area I have no feel for.

(More in hope than expectation.)

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