The Other Side of the Coin
The Other Side of the Coin The responsibility we advocate on the part of the investigative press should ,be accompanied by a burden of responsibility on the part of those whom it investigates...
...This is a publisher’s worst nightmare-that a well-heeled and determined plaintiff will destroy him even when he is telling the truth, simply by appealing to court after court until the publisher runs out of money...
...Even if the Observer wins the suit, the legal fees could easily drive it into bankruptcy...
...The Other Side of the Coin The responsibility we advocate on the part of the investigative press should ,be accompanied by a burden of responsibility on the part of those whom it investigates and who take it to court...
...Only in 3 tiny minority of cases are the winning side’s fees paid by the losers...
...A recent $5-milIion suit against the worthy but impecunious Texas Observer is a reminder of the potential disaster a libel suit represents for all but the richest publishers...
...Or, in a reform that would strike fear into the hearts of litigants who are frivolous or vindictive at the same time that it would embolden those who are in the right, the law could provide that in every case all legal costs would be paid by the loser...
...Many laymen think this is the way it is for now...
...A solution would be for our federal and state legislatures to enact a statute providing that a plaintiff pay the defendent’s legal fees in any case where the plaintiff is found not to have had a reasonable ground for asserting that he had been defamed...
...It is not...
...This moment will come sooner than later for many of the more interesting and provocative periodicals for whom fiscal fragility is a chronic condition...
Vol. 7 • April 1975 • No. 2
