Share
23,488 Posts.
lightbulb Created with Sketch. 1479
clock Created with Sketch.
01/05/24
20:02
Share
Originally posted by Dochico
↑
I'm still not convinced Linda should be doing this.
Justice Lee said he didn't find evidence of a political coverup - but the Lehrmann case wasn't really about the allegations of a coverup so he probably didn't seen all the evidence available, and there may be witnesses that would come forward.
For example - why was Brittany shuttled off to a hotel in Perth?
But even assuming Justice Lee is correct and there wasn't a coverup, that's not the end of the story.
Truth is only one of the defenses against a defamation claim. Another is the "Honest Opinion" Defence.
If Brittany can show she had enough reason to believe there was a coverup going on - even if there wasn't - then that would be enough to win the case.
She was a rape victim being very publicly exposed. The judge could well rule it was her honest opinion, or he could decide that it was close enough to warrant a very minimal payment of damages to Linda.
Just not a slam dunk in my view.
Expand
For an honest opinion defense as i understand it, the statement must be made as a statement of opinion, not a statement of fact. I'd have to go back and look at exactly what's been said, but I never got the idea that Brit simply held the opinion that there was a political cover up, it seemed to be very much a statement of fact