Philadelphia Defamation Lawyers

Areas of Expertise

Defamation, Libel, and Slander

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." Buffett, Warren

"The truth is generally the best vindication against slander." Abraham Lincoln

We all have heard the phrase, "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me." However, that is not always true. Words spoken or written can seriously hurt or damage the reputation of a person, professional, physician, lawyer, judge, teacher, business, or political leader, in addition to many others.

In this day and age, it is no longer just hurtful words printed in a newspaper or heard on the radio that can seriously hurt someone. We now have email, cell phone pictures, uploads, videos, forums, blogs, Internet groups, list serv’s, and social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter that can spread very hurtful and damaging words, pictures, videos, or comments to hundreds or thousands of people in a very short period of time. Once the damaging information is out there on the "Web", it is very difficult to quickly remove it, so the damage is prolonged and could be severe or even deadly.

Defamation’s Catastrophic Effects

Just recently in the news, we read or heard about Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge. Tyler decided to end his life after his roommate, Dharun Rivi, not only posted a video on the Internet of Tyler having intimate relations with his same sex partner, but also posted "tweets" on Twitter about the encounter. Three days after Clementi heard of the written words or libel on the Internet, he left a suicide note on Facebook that said, "Jumping off GW Bridge, sorry."

Sadly, Tyler’s story shows all of us just how devastating and hurtful spoken or written words from others can really be. Families have been torn apart, lives ruined, businesses destroyed, profession’s ruined, and lives lost all because someone decided to say or write something nasty or inaccurate about another person or business.

Legal Trailblazers Defending Your Good Name

Here at The Beasley Firm, we are very familiar with how defamation, libel, and slander can totally destroy a life, a family, or business. Since 1958, The Beasley Firm has represented public figures, politicians, high ranking officials, television personalities, journalists, business owners, teachers, and many others that have been seriously harmed by hurtful written or spoken words. Here are just some of our awards that helped someone, just like you, get back on their feet again after something false or mean was written or said and we also helped to clear their name:

Sprague v. Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc.: $34 million libel verdict, the largest defamation award in Pennsylvania history; The Beasley Firm sued the Philadelphia Inquirer and won $34 million on behalf of Richard Sprague, who was accused of quashing a murder investigation when he was acting as Philadelphia’s Assistant District Attorney.

McDermott v. PNI: $6 million libel verdict: The Beasley Firm represented Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice James McDermott in a newspaper series titled "Above the Law," a seven week trial involving a story that accused Justice McDermott, and others on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, of corruption and unethical behavior. The jury deliberated for nine hours and awarded Justice McDermott $3 million compensatory and $3 million punitive damages.

Cipriano v. PNI: CONFIDENTIAL multi-million settlement. This case is the only known time that a reporter sued his own employer for libel. Ralph Cipriano was a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer for over twenty years; while working the religion beat, had uncovered massive corruption in the catholic church. When reporter Cipriano tried to have the Inquirer publish his story exposing the Archdiocese for extravagant spending while at the same time closing parochial schools, the newspaper’s editor refused to publish it. Reporter Cipriano had the article instead published in the National Catholic Reporter; when the newspaper’s editor was asked why they didn’t publish the piece, he accused Cipriano of writing false information.

Laxalt v. Sacramento Bee: We represented then-Senator Paul Laxalt (R, Nev) against the Sacramento Bee, which reported that Laxalt was "skimming" profits from a casino in which he had an interest. For the first time in history, the paper published a retraction and paid over $750,000.00.

Hilary Koprowski, M.D. v. Rolling Stone Magazine: Dr. Koprowski is credited as being one of the creators of the polio vaccine; Rolling Stone magazine wrote an article accusing Dr. Koprowski of causing AIDS – the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) due to his work with monkeys on the Polio vaccine. We brought suit against Rolling Stone and, among other things, they published a detailed retraction to clear Dr. Koprowski’s name.

Substantial CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT and a retraction for a prominent local attorney who was ambushed in his office and accused by the news media of not having the correct qualifications to operate the aircraft he unfortunately crashed and suffered serious injuries. This case was significant in that we were able to have this attorney considered a private figure in spite of his prominence in the national legal community.

Henne M.D. v. Thomas Jefferson University and Feldman, M.D. CONFIDENTIAL SETTLEMENT for a libel suit against Dr. Henne’s employer, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, for defaming the emergency room physician’s name due to him refusing to preferentially direct patients away from their regular doctors and to Jefferson University to increase business to the hospital.

Confidential Settlement for Rob Guarino, former Fox Philly 29 News meteorologist and weatherman, and founder of www.Liveweatherbogs.com against a former business partner who posted false and defaming comments about Mr. Guarino on the liveweatherblogs.com web site.

The nationally recognized Beasley personal injury law firm is the firm you want to contact if you have a think you may have defamation, libel, or slander case. The Beasley defamation law firm is where doctors, journalists, business owners, attorneys, and political leaders have turned to when they were defamed and our success shows that we not only got compensation for them for their pain and losses, but also cleared their names.

Our collective knowledge and experience assisted in obtaining two of the largest verdicts in Pennsylvania history, $907 million and $104 million, as well as countless other multimillion dollar judgments and settlements. To date, we have been awarded over $2 billion on behalf of our clients.

If you or a loved one has suffered due to defamation, libel, or slander, contact one of our experienced Philadelphia defamation lawyers at 1-800-588-0130. As always, we offer a zero fee guarantee which means that if we don’t make a recovery on your behalf, you don’t owe us a dime. We always offer a free, no obligation consultation.