COURT WATCH
Libel: Getting to trial just got easier. Will it stand?
By the time you read this, the Supreme Court will have already decided whether to review a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court that, if allowed to stand, will make it considerably easier to get to trial with a frivolous libel suit.
Over the last twenty years, three-quarters of all libel suits have been dismissed before ever getting to trial, according to the Libel Defense Resource Center. Judges typically consider evidence from both the plaintiff and the defense before deciding if a case merits a trial.
Under the Ninth Circuit's two-to-one May 19 ruling, judges will be limited to considering evidence presented by plaintiffs in libel cases before deciding whether a trial is in order.
The ruling stems from a libel suit that Suzuki brought against Consumers Union in 1996 after a Consumer Reports review rated the Suzuki Samurai "not acceptable," citing its propensity to tip over in emergency maneuvers.
Consumers Union, which has already spent $5 million on its defense, argues that if it is easier to get a libel suit to trial the press may think twice before publishing tough investigative pieces, knowing that mounting a defense can be prohibitively expensive.
A wide range of media organizations, including the New York Times Company, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Time Inc., have jointly filed an amicus brief in support of Consumers Union.
The court was to decide on November 3 whether to grant a review.
If the case is taken up, oral arguments will be sometime next
spring.
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