Everyone is protected from defamation by common law. Defamation is a public attack on a person’s good reputation through a harmful verbal or spoken statement (slander), or a harmful printed statement (libel). Because defamation is a “strict liability” tort, whether the accusatory statements are intended to do harm is irrelevant. Complicated and with very serious consequences for both sides, defamation cases are ably handled by Robertson Stromberg Pedersen LLP’s lawyers through litigation or through alternative dispute resolution.