Offer to make amends

Club la Costa (UK) plc v Gebhard and another QBD TLR 10 December

A statement cannot be defamatory in the abstract. Accordingly, if a statement was admitted to be defamatory by the person making an offer of amends under s2(2) of the Defamation Act 1996, he could not make that concession without at the same time conceding that the statement was defamatory of the person making the complaint. An offer to make amends for a defamatory statement cannot be valid without the offer or accepting that the specific defamatory meaning contained in the statement complained of was defamatory of the person bringing the complaint. Accordingly, purported offers made by the defendant were not valid offers within the meaning of s2(2) of the 1996 Act.