2006 January 11

Newman v. Halstead, 2006 BCSC 65

The British Columbia Supreme Court awarded defamation damages aggregating $676,000 CAN to eleven plaintiffs who were defamed in sixty defamatory statements published on internet “chat rooms” or “bulletin boards”, a website and in emails which were distributed to large numbers of recipients. The largest individual award of general damages was $150,000 CAN. The judgment included an award of $50,000 CAN punitive damages to be divided equally among the plaintiffs. The Court also granted a permanent injunction against “any statements or other communications which refer to any of the plaintiffs by name, by depiction or by description.”