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Media Law

Sills Cummis & Gross handles a wide variety of high profile First Amendment and defamation matters for its clients as part of its media law practice.  The media law practice at Sills Cummis & Gross provides comprehensive services to individual and corporate clients, including:

  • Defending and prosecuting defamation claims on behalf of clients in the healthcare, information technology, print and television media, insurance, entertainment and other fields
  • Litigating access to government records (Freedom of Information Act [FOIA], Open Public Records Act [OPRA] and common law)
  • Conducting pre-publication review for media clients for potential liability, including liability for defamation and invasion of privacy
  • Defending media clients relating to news gathering torts including invasion of privacy and false light
  • Advising media clients in connection with Congressional investigations concerning news reporting practices

Sills Cummis & Gross has been successful in obtaining corrections, retractions and apologies for inaccurate matters that have already been published.

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Representative Matters

  • Successfully defending a major television broadcast company in connection with a defamation suit filed by politicians in a large urban city in northern New Jersey following an expose regarding corruption in the city.
  • Successfully defending the campaign of a candidate for Governor in the tri-state area against a libel suit brought by a primary opponent relating to alleged false and defamatory statements concerning the opponent published in mailers disseminated by the candidate’s campaign office.
  • Successfully defending a publisher of a medical journal in a suit involving claims for false light invasion of privacy and defamation premised on the publication of a research article that identified the plaintiff as a co-author of the article where he had requested that his name not be associated with the publication.
  • Successfully defending a television broadcasting company and “shock jock” on First Amendment and other grounds in connection with an alleged injury caused by satirical materials aired on the show.
  • Successfully defending on First Amendment grounds a talk show host in connection with claims asserted by guests on a television program who claimed to have been subjected to harassment and personal injury by audience members and security guards.
  • Successfully prosecuting a commercial defamation case on behalf of an information technology company where a competitor posted false and defamatory information regarding the client on the competitor’s website.
  • Successfully defending an international news wire service against a defamation claim brought by a school teacher for publication of an allegedly false and defamatory quote in a news report relating to a matter of public concern.
  • Defending a television station against defamation, false light and privacy torts relating to the broadcast of a news media ride along with police.
  • Defending a television station against defamation claims brought by a doctor for the news broadcast of allegedly false and defamatory statements concerning his license.

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