: Re: What exactly is "fair comment?" From what I understand, truth is a defense against a charge of libel. More to the point, I've been told that a statement need not be true if it represents

@Heady158

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Let's take a step back. What is your goal in writing this story?

If you think that some real person did something that would make an interesting story, and you don't have any desire to praise or condemn the real person, than just change details of the events and the person sufficiently that there is no obvious similarity. Like I said in response to another question on libel, if the real person is a tall thin white man from Kansas, make your character a short fat black woman from Oregon. If the real event was an ingenious robbery of a warehouse where jewels were stolen, make your story an ingenious robbery of an office building where microchips were stolen. Etc. Pick out the parts that you think make the story interesting and change everything else.

If your point is that you want to publicly blast some person who you think is deserving of condemnation, then you have an inherent problem. If you make the association obscure enough that a judge and jury will say that there is no evidence you are talking about this particular person, than readers are likely to not realize you are talking about this particular person either. If you make it clear to the reader, it will be clear to the judge. Maybe if you're very skillful at it you can make it just clear enough that readers know who you mean, but then in court you can deny it and the evidence won't be strong enough to prove you're lying. But not only would that seem like a very unethical thing to do, but it would be very tricky to pull off in practice, I'd think.

The other alternative is to be sure that you have your facts right. If you add any speculation and present it as fact, you are setting yourself up for legal trouble.

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