The Question and Answer Board

[WillP]

Which brings me to a question of my own for any legal types: If someone makes a reputation-harming untrue statement about you in writing, and prefaces it with "I hear" or "In my opinion" or "I think" or any other such qualifier, is it likely to make it less libelous?

That depends. I'm a Canadian, and not a lawyer, but my understanding of libel law in both countries is this:

If an opinion can not be proved false, it's not libelous. If it can, it might be.

That is:

Posting "This company is a scam and a fraud in my opinion," could well be libelous.

Posting, "I think this product is junk," is not.

Always adding "in my opinion" does not make one libel-proof, they say.

Regards,

Will