A lawsuit to protect honor and dignity is a means of protecting a person’s reputation in court. Who has the right to use it? How is the lawsuit filed, what are the requirements for it? Knowing these aspects will help achieve victory in the proceedings.
Normative regulation
Passes through the following laws.
- GK. It contains the main provisions of the legislation on the protection of moral rights, which do not have a clear material assessment. It defines their essence and means of protection.
- GPC. Describes the procedure for considering a claim for the protection of honor and dignity in court, appealing and reviewing decisions already taken in a case.
- Media Law. Lists the rights of individuals involved in journalism and those affected by media activities.
Clarifications of the RF Armed Forces on the application of laws on the protection of honor and dignity are advisory in nature and are not formally considered a source of law.
The right to defense by the state
All these normative acts give the right to protection by the state. It does not matter, neither gender, nor nationality, nor official position, nor any other factor that would allow to take away this right or, conversely, make it a priority over the rights of other people. The constitution and laws emphasize the equality of all before the law. In this regard, which model of a claim for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation is not so important.
What is the subject of protection
The suit for the protection of honor and dignity is filed on fairly understandable grounds. But what are these objects from the point of view of the law?
There is no exact definition in the regulatory acts and lawyers are more likely to rely on the understanding developed by the judicial practice. In particular, in the explanations given by the highest court of the country.
Honor is an assessment of personality traits in terms of moral standards accepted in society.
Dignity is presented as an assessment of one's own personality, awareness of one's own worth as a person.
Business reputation affects the business sector and covers the assessment of professionalism and business qualities.
Forms of harm
In civil law, it is mainly a question of material harm, not much is said about intangible categories. For example, moral damage. It refers to the suffering and suffering caused by unlawful actions. The degree of guilt, the severity of experiences (for example, whether the incident affected the health) are assessed.
How much will be adequate to the suffering inflicted is decided on the basis of the number of people among whom information is disseminated.
By filing a lawsuit to protect honor and dignity, the plaintiff must prove the connection of his suffering with the actions of the defendant.
However, in situations of gross violation of the rights of others related to administrative and criminal offenses, proof of connection is virtually not required.
And one more thing: non-pecuniary damage is recoverable only in claims from citizens.
What actions are considered a violation
The claim for the protection of honor and dignity is decided by the court in favor of the plaintiff, provided that the defendant has certain actions. They consist in the dissemination of false information that is knowingly false.
Public distribution is considered to be their replication in the media, including in electronic form. This includes their promotion through the Internet, for example, through social networks, films, video hosting.
The provision of distorted information in the service documentation is also subject to Art.152 Civil Code.
Claim Structure
The main points are as follows:
- name of court;
- Name of the plaintiff, his place of residence;
- Name of the defendant (or full name of the organization) place of residence or location;
- statement of circumstances;
- references to evidence normative acts, clarifications of the Supreme Court;
- the requirement to publicly refute the information expressed (a number of features are noted below);
- claim for non-pecuniary damage (the amount in cash is indicated);
- inventory of attached documents;
- receipt of payment of state duty;
- date and signature of the plaintiff or his representative (the representative is required to have a power of attorney, a copy of which is attached to the materials of the claim).
Copies of the claim and documents are attached according to the estimated number of participants in the process.
Whatever sample of the claim for the protection of the honor and dignity of the person may be taken for study, it is built according to general rules. Features are more in the content of the claim.
What is the lawsuit based on?
The statement describes the actions of the defendant. Facts cannot be mixed with emotions. The statement of circumstances should be as specific and complete as possible.
In the case, the plaintiff proves the fact of disseminating information by providing copies of letters, orders, materials from the personal file of the employee, testimony. Referring to a source on the Internet, the plaintiff provides a photocopy of the page using a notary public. The seal and signature of a notary are serious arguments for a judge.
The truth of the disseminated information must be proved by the defendant.
We note the difference with the dissemination of information about a person’s private life, for maintaining the secrecy to which he is entitled. If the information did not contain anything offensive, the right to a claim for compensation for non-pecuniary damage is retained. And the victim retains the right to demand a ban on the non-dissemination of information about privacy and the removal of information.
In judicial practice, evaluative statements or opinions are considered not to affect the honor, dignity and business reputation, unless they are offensive in nature.
An insult is considered to be the humiliation of the honor and dignity of the person, expressed in indecent form (obscene abuse, etc.). However, the fact of insult is provable provided that the citizen is brought to administrative responsibility by issuing a decision by a justice of the peace.
What the applicant is entitled to demand
Oblige the other party to issue a rebuttal. How is this done?
- the applicant has the right to demand the issuance of a refutation and place his review in the same source;
- documents in which information is indicated are canceled according to a court decision or revoked if they cannot be canceled (for example, information from a citizen’s personal file);
- if it is not possible to bring the refutation to the public, the applicant has the right to demand removal of it from all available sources and their blocking.
The first method is applied to mass media (both electronic and published in paper form). It applies to sites and portals that are not related to the media.
Statutes of limitations
They do not extend to the protection of intangible goods, to which the categories under discussion belong. This principle applies if false and defamatory information has not been posted in the media. In this case, the plaintiff has a year to file a lawsuit.
How do statutes of limitations affect non-pecuniary damage? The statute of limitations for its recovery is tied to the limitation period at the basic demand. That is, the media run the risk of facing a lawsuit during the year, and other individuals forever. The heirs also have the right to sue.
Arbitrage practice
Judicial decisions on the protection of honor and dignity are taken regularly and lawyers have already made a number of conclusions on the application of the relevant legislation.
- cases are considered in arbitration and in district courts (in the first case, disputes relate to entrepreneurial activity);
- the fact of television and radio broadcasts and its contents is confirmed by recordings made by the plaintiff or other persons, testimonies of witnesses and other evidence;
- in the case there must be at the same time evidence of the spread of false information, their depravity and dissemination among more than two persons;
- assessment of statements by the court is based on the opinions of linguists or psychologists.