Georges v Georges; Georges v Georges [2022] NSWDC 558

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Georges v Georges; Georges v Georges [2022] NSWDC 558 Hearing dates: 10 November 2022 Date of orders: 15 November 2022 Decision date: 15 November 2022 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Abadee DCJ Decision: See paragraph 108 Catchwords: TORT – defamation – validity of concerns notice – Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), ss 12A and 12B – assessment of adequacy of information provided as to serious harm to reputation – relevance or significance of publisher's omission to request further particulars notice when determining adequacy of concerns notice – alternative application to strike out certain pleaded imputations on basis not referred to in the concerns notice Legislation Cited: Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) ss 10A, 12A, 12B, 13, 15 Defamation Act 2013 (UK) Defamation Amendment Act 2020 (NSW) Cases Cited: Baker v Rothmans of Pall Mall (Australia) Ltd [1999] NSWCA 245 Hill v Bolt (1992) 28 NSWLR 329 John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd v Hitchcock (2007) 70 NSWLR 484 Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd [2020] AC 612 MI v R1 [2022] NSWDC 409 Nyasulu v Naikelekele [2022] NSWDC 507 Rader v Haines [2022] NSWCA 198 Randell v McLachlin [2022] NSWDC 506 Teh v Woodworth [2022] NSWDC 411 Zimmerman v Perkiss [2022] NSWDC 448 Texts Cited: D Rolph, 'A serious harm threshold for Australian Defamation Law' (2022) 51 Australian Bar Review 185 Category: Procedural rulings Parties: Farah Georges (plaintiff) George Georges (defendant) Bassam Georges (defendant) Representation: Counsel: Mr D Sibtain SC with Mr T Senior for the plaintiff Mr K Smark SC with Mr N Olsen for the defendants