Report: Libel Cases Down in 2008, But Plaintiff Success Up

By: Joe Strupp Fewer major trials on libel and related press issues were held in 2008 than at any time since 2002, according to the Media Law Resource Center, which tracks such information. But half of those cases ended with the plaintiff winning, a slight change in the trend that had seen press defendants succeeding in battles against such lawsuits.

MLRC cited six such cases in 2008, the fewest since 2002, noting defendants and plaintiffs split, 3-3, in the final outcomes. That marked a slight increase in anti-press success. It did not reveal specifics of those cases.

MLRC also updated its long-term data on such cases, dating back to 1980, which included information on 595 such cases.

"Overall since 1980, media defendants have increasingly won a higher percentage of case trials, with the defense win rate at trial rising from 36.8 percent of verdicts in the 1980s to 40.4 percent in the 1990s and 53.6 percent so far in the 2000s," the report said. "And while punitive damages constituted 56.3 percent of the trial awards in 2008, the long-term trend is that the percentage of cases that had punitive damage awards has declined significantly."

It noted that: "the percentage of dollars represented by punitive damage awards has declined dramatically. In the 1980s, 61.0 percent of damage dollars awarded were punitive. This declined to 51.1 percent in the 1990s (with one exceptional verdict, in MMAR v. Dow Jones, excluded), and so far this decade, punitive awards have been only 8.9 percent of total awards.

"In all of the cases in the MLRC database that form the basis of this report, from 1980 through 2008, at the conclusion of all proceedings, defendants totally won 56.6 percent of cases. This is the share of cases in which plaintiffs ended up with no damages after trial, post-trial motions, and appeals. In 6.8 percent of cases, plaintiffs ended up winning some damages, but less than the amount initially awarded at trial."

The report adds that: "total damage awards in the cases tried from 1980-2008 were reduced 88.1 percent overall from the amounts awarded at trial to the amounts ultimately awarded after post-trial motions and appeals . The average damage award at trial, $2.8 million, was reduced to an average final award of only $580,000, while the median dropped from $300,000 to $100,000."

It found that California has had the most trials since 1980 (41), followed by Pennsylvania (37), and Texas (32).

More information from the report can be found at www.medialaw.org.