Malicious falsehood

Malicious falsehood is a similar type of claim to defamation. Put simply, a malicious falsehood is a false statement published maliciously by the defendant which either causes or is likely to cause financial loss to the claimant. "Malicious" means, essentially, that the defendant either knew that the statement was false or did not care as to its truth. Malicious falsehood therefore has a number of disadvantages over defamation for a claimant. Unlike defamation, a claimant must prove malice, falsity and actual or likely financial loss.

The only advantage of malicious falsehood is that it can apply to any statement whereas in defamation the statement must be defamatory in nature. This is the one area in which it would be advisable to consider a malicious falsehood action in place of defamation. There may be many statements which can cause financial loss but which are not defamatory. For example, to falsely say of a solicitor that he has retired, cannot be defamatory but could be very damaging. If the solicitor could show that the statement was made maliciously, he could bring an action for malicious falsehood.