Writing a Memoir Without Being Sued

When writing a memoir you are not only writing about yourself. Your life story includes other people, such as relatives, friends, neighbors, old bosses, co-workers, old flames, old classmate, etc. When you are writing your story, you are writing their story as well. When bearing it all in your book you must wonder will revealing certain incidents be embarrassed for them or are your recollections the same as theirs.

Memoir authors are sometimes sued by people mentioned in their books for defamation. For this reason the typical publishing contracts require an author to promise his or her work does not defame anyone nor invade anyone's privacy. The contracts all state if the author is sued, he or she be solely responsible, leaving the publisher free of all obligation and liabilities.

So before writing, a author should get familiarized with defamation laws.

What Is Defamation
In general the legal definition of defamation is: injuring a person's reputation to the point to deterring others from dealing with him or her. It is a false statement of fact. Unless you can prove that the statement is true a defamation claim cannot be made against you. A defamation claim can only be made if the author claims the statement in question is proclaimed to be factual.

Fuzzy Memories
Recollections of an event vary with people even though they may have been involved in the same event. This is natural because people have different perceptions. Authors have been sued by people claiming that events in their memoirs are distorted and fabricated. Sometime the complainant wins. To avoid being sued the author can include a disclaimer at the beginning of his or her book. The disclaimer should state the events in the memoir are described according to his or her recognition and understanding of the events.

Identifying Details
Sometimes authors try to beat defamation by changing the name and personal descriptions of people involved in events. However, the author can still be liable if the person can be easily identified by the described events. If such events have the potential to cause harm and embarrassment to a person, it would be a good idea for the writer to do one of two things. (1) contact the person and ask for permission to write the events or (2) just do not use them at all.

Privacy
Although what you have written about someone is true, his or her privacy must be considered. A writer must understand that invasion of privacy occurs when he or she writes about factual event that are not related to public concern, meaning events that happened in private and not meant to be made nor impact the public, such as a consensual sexual encounter. It would be a good idea to omit such events from ones book. People have been known to sue writers for including such events in a memoir and win the lawsuits.

Another thing memoir writer must be careful not to disclose is private facts about someone in a way that would be offensive. For example: lets say you are describing a friend in your memoir. Your friend may not be a flashy dresser nor a tidy house keeper. In you book you may describe your friend is this way:

"Joe never spends money on clothes, although he has a six figure salary. He has been wearing the same three pair of underwear for the past fives years. He has been wearing the same black suit since he graduated from college, which was 12 years ago. He never cleans his shabby apartment. Papers are everywhere. The carpet....."

Just think what kind of image of you friend the reader gets. It makes him sound like a cheapskate slob. Which he really is not. There can be perfectly honorable reasons why he does not spend a lot of money and does not clean often. He could be using his money to help family members, paying off student loans, and paying expensive rent. He probably does not have time to clean up because he has a demanding job that requires him to work over 50 hours a week. So instead of making your friend sound like a cheapskate slob, include these details which gives a more accurate view of your friends life.

Criminal Acts
If you are going to record a crime in your memoir, you should be cautious. If the crime has occurred a number of years ago, and the person has since then been rehabilitated and has been living a straight life, recording the crime in a published book can hurt the reputation he or she worked to build. So recording such a crime would not be good judgement. However, if the person committed a crime and is currently serving time for the crime, then it would be safe to record the crime in the book.

So a memoir writer has a lot to consider when writing about others. A memoir writer has the liberty to disclose whatever he or she wants about him or herself. However, when it comes to other people, careful discretion is advised.