Where a jury finds that serious imputations reflecting adversely on a plaintiff's character and professional competence have been conveyed, a finding that none of those imputations is defamatory will be perverse. The context of a publication — including that it was a confidential complaint by a parent to a single recipient — does not diminish the defamatory character of serious imputations about moral blameworthiness, dishonesty, and professional unfitness. Whether the Jameel proportionality principle applies in Queensland remains an open question, but even if it does, a defendant who insisted on trial by jury cannot readily invoke it post-trial to resist a retrial order.
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