Concerns Notice:

A Concerns Notice is a document that is required to be prepared before an Offer to Make Amends can be made. An aggrieved person (who has potentially defamatory material directed towards them) serves a concerns notice on the publisher.  Within 28 days of receipt the publisher may make an offer to make amends, but if this time lapses or they decide to serve a defence then this option is no longer available. Consultation with a specialised Defamation Lawyer could be greatly advantageous if you are involved in a Defamation matter.

A notice is a Concerns Notice if it is in writing, and  informs the publisher of the defamatory imputations that the aggrieved person considers are or may be carried about the aggrieved person by the matter in question (the imputations of concern). If an aggrieved person gives the publisher a Concerns Notice, but fails to particularise the imputations of concern adequately, the publisher may give the aggrieved person a written notice (a further particulars notice) requesting the aggrieved person to provide reasonable further particulars about the imputations of concern as specified in the further particulars notice. An aggrieved person to whom a further particulars notice is given must provide the reasonable further particulars specified in the notice within 14 days (or any further period agreed by the publisher and aggrieved person) after being given the notice. An aggrieved person who fails to provide the reasonable further particulars specified in a further particulars notice within the applicable period is taken not to have given the publisher a Concerns Notice for the purposes of this section. Thorough and detailed legal advice from a Defamation Lawyer can assist you in understanding the intricacies and nuances in Defamation Law.

Following the issuance of a Concerns Notice an offer to make amends can be made. An offer to make amends must be in writing; must be readily identifiable as an offer to make amends under the law; must state and clarify if it is limited; and must include an offer to publish, or join in publishing, a reasonable correction of the matter in question. Also, if material containing the matter has been given to someone else by the publisher or with the publisher’s knowledge — must include an offer to take, or join in taking, reasonable steps to tell the other person that the matter is or may be defamatory of the aggrieved person. It should include an offer to pay the expenses reasonably incurred by the aggrieved person before the offer was made and the expenses reasonably incurred by the aggrieved person in considering the offer. Furthermore, it  may include any other kind of offer, or particulars of any other action taken by the publisher, to redress the harm sustained by the aggrieved person because of the matter in question, including (but not limited to) an offer to publish, or join in publishing, an apology in relation to the matter in question or, if the offer is limited to any particular defamatory imputations, the imputations to which the offer is limited; or an offer to pay compensation for any economic or non-economic loss of the aggrieved person; or the particulars of any correction or apology made, or action taken, before the date of the offer. Being properly advised by a Defamation Lawyer useful when you are involved in a Concerns Notice matter.

If you need further legal advice on your defamation matter, you may book an appointment with us by telephone on (02) 9233 4048 or by email to info@navado.com.au. 

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