Media Batted .500 In Libel Trials Last Year

By: Mark Fitzgerald While media credibility was a big issue throughout 2005, news organizations actually taken to trial on libel, invasion of privacy, and related claims did pretty well, winning seven and losing seven, the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) says.

Damage awards imposed on news organizations also fell during 2005 compared to the previous two decades. In the most encouraging news for media defendants who lose at trial, punitive damages as a percentage of total damages awarded fell to its lowest level in 25 years -- just 3.5%.

In its latest report, "Report on Trials and Damages," New York City-based MLRC says 2005 continued a quarter-century-long trend of fewer libel trials and more victories by media defendants. The report analyzes 531 trial verdicts from 1980 through 2005.

"Media defendants go to trial less and win at trial more -- the statistics on trials of libel, privacy and related claims are clear on those two trends since 1980," MLRC Executive Director Sandra Baron said in a statement. "This is good news for those who understand the threat posed to free speech and press from the enormous time and expense of these kinds of lawsuits."

MLRC said the media's win rate at trials has been going up, from 36.3% during the '80s, to 40.2% in the '90s, to 53.8% from 2000 to 2005. Overall, media defendants won 214 of the 531 trials verdicts, or 40.3%.

The number of trials is also dropping decade by decade. In the 1980s, there were an average of 27 trials each year. That dropped to 18.8% in the 1990s, and 13.8 so far this year.

The year 2005 bucked the more worrying trend of ever-bigger awards to libel plaintiffs who can make their claims stick.

In 2005, the average damage award was $369,000, but the median damage award for the seven media losses was a modest $75,000.

So far in this decade, the average award has been $2.8 million, and the median $626. In the last 25 years, the MLRC noted, the average damage award has crept up from about $1.5 million in the 1980s to $5 million in the 1990s, an average skewed by one huge verdict of $222.7 million against Dow Jones & Co. The average damage award for the past 25 years is $2.9 million.

On appeal, the media does much better. Since 1980, the MLRC said, plaintiffs ultimately won and got to keep the entire damage award in fewer than one in five cases (18.7%) that go to trial and verdict.

One encouraging trend for news organizations is a shift in the ration of compensatory and puntive damages when plaintiffs win. In the 1980s, 61% of total damages awarded were punitive damages, while 39% were compensatory. In the 1990s, if the big Dow Jones verdict is excluded, the ratio evened out at 48.8% compensatory to 51.2% punitive.

So far this decade, compensatory damages accounting for nearly all the total awards, with 92.7% representing compensatory damages.

Defamation is the most frequent litigated claim, with the claim at issue in 87.6% of trials, the MLRC analysis found. Accusations that a plaintiff was portrayed in a "false light" was a distant second, at issue in 9.1% of trials.

Public figures and private citizens bring defamation and other claims in about equal number, the group said. Government officials, celebrities and other public figures were plaintiffs in 247 trials since 1980, while private figures were plaintiffs in 230 trials.

The full MLRC report is available free to the press by calling 212.337.0200.