Jean, a restaurant critic, publishes a review in a national daily that the sandwiches served at his friend's deli are usually not fresh. Tom, the owner of the deli, notices a significant decrease in customers after the review gets published. Although the statement made by Jean in his review is true, Tom wants to sue Jean. Can Tom recover from Jean for defamation?

No.

Explanation:

Defamation is not a crime by its definition, but rather a tort or a civil wrong. Written defamation is called a label and is referred to a statement that can hurt someone's reputation. In order to prove the existence of defamation, several things need to be verified:

statement is published statement is false statement is injurious statement must be unprivileged

The last one of these assumes that under some circumstances, victim cannot submit an appeal, even if it is possible to prove that the statement is false. This is the case with for instance witnesses in court, who cannot be sued for false testimony, due to freedom of speech, but can be prosecuted for perjury. In our case, three of four conditions necessary for sue to be made are fulfilled. The second one is not, therefore Tom cannot sue Jean for defamation.