: Re: Use of real organization in fiction I have just finished a mystery in which I have used the name of a real community organization. It's an organization that people either love or hate because

@Welton431

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I'm not a lawyer but if it were me I'd feel like I was on thin legal ice.

Even if you don't think you trash them, they might think so, and then sue you for defamation, claiming the worst thing you write about them has damaged their reputation.

Disclaimers are not a bullet proof shield, just because you say it does not give it a presumption of truth in court. Anybody can lie in print.

Suppose you were on a jury, and some author tells you, "The fictional character that I wrote having the same name, address, age, appearance and profession as my real life boss, the one that I portrayed as an embezzler and weekend prostitute, was entirely a figment of my imagination."

Whose side do you take, jury member? Was the author's disclaimer a lie, or do you consider it automatically true just because it was written in a book?

I repeat I am not a lawyer, but to be safe I'd change the name and details. You might even refer to the real name as their competitor and a thorn in their side, so no rational reader would think they are the same organization.

Readers will accept an entirely fictional giant organization or corporation. Using the real name does not add to the story, if anything it is a writing shortcut you should not take.

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