Andy Leonard, an actor, father of two and administrator of a Facebook page with 246 followers, was sued for a comment he never made and never saw about a person he didn’t know. What’s the scam?
The scam is the unscrupulous actions of law firms exploiting defamation laws and the vulnerable for their own profit.
Andy’s Facebook group is about surrogacy parenthood. In September 2023, a group member posted comments about a named person. The post was derogatory and inaccurate, containing false accusations, according to a letter Andy received from Sydney law firm Macpherson Kelley a month later.
A later ‘concerns notice’ from the law firm demanded that the comment be pulled down, an apology issued, their client’s legal fees to be paid by Andy and “You pay our Clients damages to be agreed upon.” Andy did remove the comment and offered a full apology, while not accepting that he was responsible for it, as he had not seen the post until he received the notice from the law firm.
Macpherson Kelley – which brands itself “no robots, just good humans and brilliant lawyers” – used the case law from the 2020 case Voller vs Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd, Nationwide News Pty Limited, and Australian News Channel Pty Ltd. to justify their claims against Andy.
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According to Andy, at the time of his removing the offending post, it had six post reactions. Andy also imposed limitations on the person who had made the offending comments. Macpherson Kelley, however, persisted, and Andy had to engage legal counsel to defend himself.
The person making the defamatory comments was not sued. Andy Leonard, on the other hand, is an actor with a public profile and was presumably easier for the law firm to ‘get to.’
To cut a long story short, in August this year, and $25,000 in legal fees later, a court-approved agreement was reached between the parties. Andy again agreed to an apology, while the court made no order for Andy to pay any costs other than his own. He has also suffered a substantial loss of income because he had to spend countless hours defending himself.
“I was the one dragged into court, facing a legal nightmare that has devastated my family. We’ve had to move, we’re in a situation where we can’t plan for the future or sometimes afford basic necessities due to the snowball effect of having to cover these costs.”
I’m furious that lives can be ruined due to being liable for an online comment that someone wrote someone else which was only seen by a handful of people.
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Kim Wingerei is a businessman turned writer and commentator. He is passionate about free speech, human rights, democracy and the politics of change. Originally from Norway, Kim has lived in Australia for 30 years. Author of ‘Why Democracy is Broken – A Blueprint for Change’.