Where damages in a defamation action are assessed by an appellate court, pre-judgment interest should run to the date of the appellate judgment rather than being backdated to the trial judgment date. Section 38(2)(a) of the Defamation Act 2005 (SA) does not apply to costs of an appeal. A defendant's failure to settle a defamation claim is not unreasonable where the defence of justification involves finely balanced factual disputes and the defendant has reasonable grounds to believe the defence has reasonable prospects of success. The conventional 50 per cent discount for accrual of loss may be reduced where the court considers more loss accrued in the earlier part of the period.
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