Defamation: Before you slam your child’s school principal online, here’s what you should know

BCM113 Legal Explainer Assignment

Pictured: Tracey Brose - Gold Coast Bulletin 2019

A member of today’s society has the responsibility to use social media appropriately. Outrageous, false and misleading claims appear online daily across the globe for all sorts of reasons, but you might be surprised at what it could cost you. Defamation is “the wrong of injuring another’s reputation without good reason or justification” according to (Pearson & Polden 2019, p.220). Misunderstanding or being uneducated on the Australian Legal System’s response to defamation is certainly dangerous water to charter, information and claims made online should be truthful and not intended to harm a person's career or their quality of life. The Defamation Act 2005, clearly explains the law around defamation in Australia but is rather broad in its ideology of where defamation can occur and how.

A study ran by the University of Technology Sydney found that 50% of social media legal cases are now defamation cases. So it is evident that slanderous comments are not only limited to people such as public figures and high profile celebrities but the everyday person is also at risk of being talked about online and having their reputation endangered. In court, you are unable to use the fact that you were not intending to defame someone as a defence. Being aggressive online is never a good idea and the legal consequences are rather incredible. So what exactly are they?

Principal Tracey Brose Defamation Case (2020)

A High School Principal in the town of Mount Tamborine on the Gold Coast, Queensland won an expensive defamation case in 2020. After experiencing defamatory remarks made about her online in 2016, Tracey Brose embarked on a lengthy and costly legal journey. Through which she would eventually gain over $182,500. This case involves a school principal suing the parents of her former students after they made extremely insulting comments about her on social media.

In March 2020, the legal case was ran as a story for Channel Nine's 60 Minutes Program. 0.00-2.46 introduces the case briefly.

Tracey Brose had her principal status put on pause for several weeks in March 2016 whilst a complaint about her was investigated by authorities. Her suspension was terminated when claims a parent had made about her were unproven and she returned to the high school in May. Whilst she was suspended the school’s Parents and Carers Faculty launched a campaign on Change.org claiming her suspension was unfair and hoping to bring Brose back as the principal. Whilst the majority of the community voiced their support for Brose, several parents decided to use the online forum as a means to comment rather horrendous things about the principal.

One mother of a student who had been recently expelled from the high school - also appearing on 60 Minutes in 2020 - labelled Brose an “evil, nasty, horrible person”, and claims there were even worse insults used by others. Her motive for saying this was her disagreement over the grounds of her son’s expulsion; seemingly the student had made inappropriate sexual comments and Tracey Brose told his parents what he said could make him become perceived as a sexual predator. His parents then went on to claim the principal had actually called their son a sexual predator. As the forum gained traction around the wider community and the entire Queensland state, Brose has said she considered taking her own life and sobbed uncontrollably every night for weeks. Brose went on to claim $150,000 in damages from all of the defendants, three parents who had made defamatory comments settled outside of the court with Brose before the proceedings.

Defendants, Laura Lawson, Donna Baluskas, Miguel Baluskas, leaving the courts. (Source: ABC Gold Coast)

Previous Historic Defamation Case

The 2013 case of Mickle V Farley may very well have influenced the results of this case as it was the first Australian defamation case involving Twitter and serves an example of the risks of inappropriate social media use. A music teacher in Orange, NSW claimed $105,000 from a former student after they had spread false information about her on Twitter in 2012 and posted several insulting comments on Facebook.

Pictured: The plaintiff: Mrs Mickle of Orange High School

Recent Amendments to Australian Defamation

In 2021, Australia made amendments to its legislation in defamation to consider the modern times we are living in. All states except for the Northern Territory and Western Australia passed these reforms. This reform includes a Serious Harm Threshold through which a plaintiff now has to prove that the defamatory statements did in fact cause or were very likely to cause significant negative harm to their reputation in order for them to achieve compensation. Furthermore, Concerns Notices’ were introduced and must be expressed before a defendant launches their claim. These ensure that only the outlined Concerns Notices’ are relevant throughout the lawsuit.

What can we learn?

Defamation is an increasingly serious issue and can impact anyone at any given time. The increase of social media use, media coverage and globalisation has caused an extreme rise in defamation cases both in Australia and in other nations. It is important that Australian citizens, Media networks and News companies are educated and privy to the consequences of making false and hurtful claims, especially online.

Inappropriate comments, such as those made by the parents in the Tracey Brose case, can give way to extremely complicated and costly legal battles; this is evident when considering one parent’s claim that she has “lost everything” over a principal’s “hurt feelings.”

With defamation cases now making up half of the social media cases held in court - this percentage will likely increase in following years - it is lucky we have defamation laws in place to protect the reputations of individuals and groups in Australia. We are entitled to post and publish content that is critical, honest and fair but must not be false in our claims or attack someone or something in a nasty manner.