By Adrian Middleton · Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Four categories
Under Florida law, a false statement is defamatory per se when it accuses someone of a crime, imputes a loathsome or communicable disease, imputes conduct or characteristics incompatible with the person's business, trade or profession, or imputes sexual misconduct. [VERIFY current Florida case law before citing in a filing.]
For a business or professional, the third category is the one that comes up every week:
- "The dentist lost her license in another state."
- "The contractor pockets deposits and never shows."
- "The attorney missed the deadline and lied about it."
- "The restaurant failed its health inspection and bribed the inspector."
If any of those is false, the law presumes the business was damaged. You do not have to produce a spreadsheet of lost customers to have a claim.
Why that matters before a lawsuit
The practical effect is leverage. A demand letter that explains, correctly, that the statement is defamatory per se and that damages are presumed is read differently by the poster and by the poster's lawyer than a letter complaining about a bad review. It is also read differently by the platform's legal team, which sees the same categories in its own removal standards.
What we need from you
The thing that proves the statement false. For "lost her license", the current license verification. For "pockets deposits", the contract, the schedule and the photos of the finished work. For "failed inspection", the inspection report. Upload it to the assignment as supporting records and the demand letter will cite it.
Every assignment gets a written finding. If the content is defamatory per se, the finding says so, and so does the letter.
This article is general information about defamation law, not legal advice about your situation. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Sword & Shield, PLLC.