The Corporate Plaintiff as Public Figure

Abstract

With the constitutionalization of libel law, an increasingly important issue for the press has been which defamation plaintiffs will be regarded by courts as public figures. Public figure status carries with it a significantly higher level of fault - actual malice - than that which most private figure plaintiffs must demonstrate. One persistent question has been how the status question should be decided when the plaintiff is a corporation rather than a natural person. This study analyzes recent case law and formulates a tentative solution to the corporate public figure problem.