Courthouse News reported on a Media Law Resource Center study led by Staff Attorney Michael Norwick and on which I assisted: "Libel and privacy cases against the media continue to drop, and cases against print outlets that lead to verdict-ending trials are also declining steadily, a nonprofit dedicated to press rights reported.
The Media Law Resource Center's 2014 Report on Trials and Damages says that 12 new cases against media defendants went to trial during the last study period - seven in 2012 and five in 2013.
This is a 37 percent drop from the 19 cases reported during 2010-11, and a reduction by more than half in the average of number of cases per year from 2000 to 2010.
'This continues a long-term trend of reduced numbers of trials over the decades,' [according to ]the report.
Interestingly, half of the 12 recent cases originated in Virginia. Although this may be an anomaly, the report sees a possible explanation in the fact that the availability of summary judgment in Virginia state courts is very limited. Summary judgment can be granted only on the basis of the pleadings there, as no affidavits are permitted to support such a motion.
It is particularly difficult to win summary judgment in defamation cases in Virginia because the commonwealth's Supreme Court has said that 'only if a plaintiff unequivocally has admitted the truth of an allegedly defamatory statement, including the fair inferences, implications, and insinuations that can be drawn from that statement, may the trial judge award summary judgment to the defendant on the basis that the statement is true.'"
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