My neighbour said I broke into his shed

The acrimony began when he borrowed equipment from me and then refused to return it, and the Gardai became involved. These were then returned and it was taken no further by the Gardai on my instructions to maintain good neighbour relations.

A number of people in the locality have come to me saying he has been making accusations against me, including saying that I broke into his shed to look for the machinery, which is completely false and is causing me a lot of distress. 

I hate that it has come to this, but what are my legal options here?

Dear reader, 

I believe you would have a claim against your neighbour under the law of Defamation. Defamation is covered by the Defamation Act 2009 and is a tort aimed at protecting one’s good name, which is a constitutionally protected right.

Under Section 6 of the Defamation Act 2009, these three elements need to be satisfied in order to bring a successful action against a person accused of making defamatory statements:

• The publication of a statement by any means.
• The publication identifies the plaintiff.
• The publication is defamatory in its meaning.

It is crucial to be able to show that the statement made is capable of being defamatory, ie. it could injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society.

There is a statute of limitations when it comes to taking a case of defamation of one year. This can sometimes be extended up to two years at the Judge’s discretion. This is provided for in Section 38 of the 2009 Act.

Defamation tends to favour the person bringing the action insofar as the burden of proof is not on the plaintiff to prove their good reputation but on the defendant to prove that the statement is true. 

A defamation claim will fail if the defendant can prove that the statement is true on the balance of probabilities. This is set out in Section 16 of the 2009 Act, and the defence of truth is a complete defence. 

The person making the defamatory statement can also rely on defences 17-27 of the 2009 Act, which includes consent to publish and absolute privilege, for example. Your legal team will advise you as to whether any of these defences apply here.

In order maximise your chance of success, it is important that you detail out the history of the event and provide a chronology of events.

I would advise you put together a document which has dates and times when these defamatory statements were made and who they were made to and you should speak to your other neighbours and ask will they assist and give evidence in court if required. 

If the defamatory statements were published, it is important to keep all records of publication or any recordings of the incident occurring.

If your defamation claim is successful, you will be awarded damages. The two main types of damages awarded are general damages, which are awarded in respect of damage to reputation, and special damages, which are awarded in respect of financial losses resulting from that damage to reputation. 

Sometimes, a court will also award punitive or aggravated damages when the defendant made the defamatory statement recklessly or maliciously and the plaintiff is subject to humiliating circumstances as a result of the defamation act.

I would recommend that you obtain legal advice in relation to taking a defamation claim against your neighbour as soon as possible, considering the short statute period.