Australians are taking more defamation actions, the damages are increasing and the price of defamation insurance is rising as a result, lawyers and insurance brokers say.

The huge payout won by actor Rebel Wilson against Bauer Media in 2017 — A$650,000 for non-economic loss and A$4 million for economic loss — put Australia’s media outlets on notice. (Ultimately, the Victorian Court of Appeal cut the non-economic loss to A$600,000 and the economic loss to zero.)

Last year’s win by Geoffrey Rush, at first instance, against The Daily Telegraph — A$850,000 for non-economic loss and almost A$2 million for economic loss — was another prominent case involving a high-profile litigant.

At the same time, social media and the internet have ‘spawned a whole new industry of defamation’, says Barrie Goldsmith, principal of Australian Defamation Lawyers.

‘By far, most defamation cases now involve what we describe as ordinary people,’ he says.

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