Defamation Lawyers Parramatta

What counts as defamation in New South Wales?

Defamation in New South Wales is governed by the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), together with court-made law. You may have a claim if someone has communicated something about you to at least one other person, you can be identified from it, and it carries a meaning that lowers your reputation. That damaging meaning is called an "imputation". The communication is called a "publication", and it can be a Google review, a Facebook post, a group chat message, an email to your employer or spoken words.

Since 1 July 2021, NSW has also required "serious harm". Under section 10A of the Act you must show the publication has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm to your reputation. A judge, not a jury, decides that question, and either side can ask for it to be decided before the trial.

Individuals can sue. Under section 9, a corporation can sue only if it is a not-for-profit body, or it has fewer than 10 employees and is not related to another corporation, and it is not a public body. A corporation that can sue must also show serious financial loss.

The person who published the material may rely on a defence. The main ones in NSW are justification (the imputations are substantially true), honest opinion, privilege (protection for statements made in certain settings, such as in court or Parliament), fair report of proceedings of public concern, the public interest defence introduced in 2021 and innocent dissemination (for distributors who did not know the material was defamatory).

The concerns notice and the 1-year time limit in NSW

You generally cannot start a defamation case in NSW without first giving the publisher a concerns notice. Under sections 12A and 12B of the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), this is a written notice that says where the material can be found, sets out the imputations you complain about and explains the serious harm you say it has caused or is likely to cause. If the notice lacks detail, the publisher can ask in writing for further particulars, and you then have 14 days to provide them. If you do not, the law treats you as never having given a concerns notice.

After the notice is given, you usually have to wait 28 days before filing. That period lets the publisher make an "offer to make amends", a formal written settlement offer. It must include a correction (or, for online material, steps to remove or block it) and payment of your reasonable expenses, and may include an apology or compensation. If a reasonable offer is made promptly and you do not accept it, the publisher may be able to rely on that as a defence.

The deadline is short: under section 14B of the Limitation Act 1969 (NSW), a defamation claim must be started within 1 year of publication. For online material, that date is the day it was first uploaded or sent, not each later view. Under the "single publication rule" in section 14C, the same publisher re-posting substantially the same material generally does not restart the clock. If you give a concerns notice in the last 56 days of the year, section 14B extends the period so the waiting time can run. A court can extend the period to up to 3 years under section 56A, but only if that is just and reasonable, so it is unsafe to rely on one.

Which court hears a defamation case if you live in Parramatta or Western Sydney?

Defamation claims in NSW go to the District Court of New South Wales, the Supreme Court of New South Wales or, where the dispute falls within federal jurisdiction, the Federal Court of Australia.

The District Court can generally deal with civil claims from $100,001 up to $1,250,000. It has a registry at 12 George Street, Parramatta, but defamation is handled differently from other civil work. Under District Court Civil Practice Note 17, which began on 7 October 2025, defamation proceedings filed in any registry other than Sydney are transferred to the Sydney Registry and managed in the court's Defamation List. So a claim brought by someone in Blacktown, Penrith, Liverpool, the Hills, Auburn or Merrylands is run from the Sydney civil registry at Level 4, John Maddison Tower, 86 Goulburn Street, Sydney.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales has its own Defamation List in the Common Law Division, governed by Practice Note SC CL 4, and sits in the Law Courts Building at 184 Phillip Street, Sydney, with the registry on level 5.

In both NSW courts either side may elect to have a jury unless the court orders otherwise. A defamation jury has four members. The jury decides whether defamatory material was published about you and whether a defence is made out; the judge decides serious harm and the amount of any damages.

Bad reviews and community Facebook groups: the 2024 NSW rules for online platforms

Much reputational damage in Western Sydney happens online: a one-star review of a Parramatta clinic or a Blacktown trade business, or an accusation in a suburb community group.

NSW started the second stage of the national defamation reforms on 1 July 2024 through the Defamation Amendment Act 2023 (NSW). These changes deal with "digital intermediaries", meaning people or businesses, other than the author or poster, who provide or administer the online service where the material appears. Social media platforms, review sites and group administrators are examples. Services that only cache, carry or store data without any editorial role, and search engines returning automatically generated results that are not paid or sponsored, are now exempt from liability.

Other intermediaries have a new defence. Broadly, they are protected if they had an easy way for you to complain and, after receiving your written complaint, took reasonable steps to remove or block the material within 7 days. So a written complaint to the platform or page administrator, naming yourself, the material and where it is, is a practical early step.

Once you have a judgment or an injunction against the person who posted, NSW courts can now also order a platform that is not a party to the case to take down or block the material. Before ordering a platform to reveal who is behind an anonymous account, the court must weigh privacy and safety. The 2024 changes also extended absolute privilege, which is complete protection from a defamation claim, to reports made to police.

What to do if you have received a concerns notice

Receiving a concerns notice is stressful, but it is not a court document and does not mean you have been sued. It does start time running, so do not ignore it, and avoid replying in anger or posting about it. Keep a copy of what you published, note when and where it appeared, and consider whether it was true, an honestly held opinion or said in a setting that attracts privilege.

You can ask in writing for further particulars if the notice is unclear. You can also consider an offer to make amends, which generally must be made within 28 days of the notice. Under section 20 of the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), an apology is not an admission of fault or liability and cannot be used as evidence of it, so saying sorry early does not weaken a defence.

How NSW compares with other states

Defamation law is largely uniform because each state and territory passed matching legislation in 2005 and 2006. The differences are in timing. NSW commenced the first stage of reforms, including serious harm and the mandatory concerns notice, on 1 July 2021 and the second stage on 1 July 2024. The NSW Department of Communities and Justice lists the first stage as commenced in every state and territory other than Western Australia, and notes that South Australia has enacted only some of the digital intermediary changes. If the material was published in more than one state, the court applies the law of the place most closely connected with the harm, so where you live and where your audience is both matter.