WA Defamation by Housemate on Social Media - What to Do?

[kazza123]

Hi, I recently had to leave my rented room as I had a huge fight with housemate. She kicked me out and she would not let me go back to her place and collect my stuff. I recently found out she got rid of it anyway last night! I found out she is bad mouthing me on social media. I can't see it, but someone showed me what she said.

I'm a little lost to know what I can do I haven't seen her since I left, but I know heard she is getting a restraining order against me. Please help.

 

[Chris Gander]

Hi Kazza.
The three most important factors in any potential defamation case are:

1. the plaintiff must be clearly identifiable in the communication;
2. the communication must be damaging to the plaintiffs reputation; and
3. the communication is in some way false or unsubstantiated.

I.e. the communication must be "damaging". Bad mouthing someone on social media isn't always damaging. Damaging usually implies the communication has had a negative financial impact on your life in some way. For example, if somebody was bad mouthing a business on Facebook and what they were saying was false, and, because of what they said, it can be proven that the business lost a lot of sales revenue - the loss in sales revenue is the damage.

Thirdly, if you think defamation has occurred - you immediately need to speak to a lawyer and discuss your options. However, the first option is almost always a 'Cease & Desist' letter.