Yes, you can sue for defamation of character in Maine. It is a civil claim, not a criminal one, and you have two years from the date the false statement was published to file suit.1Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 14 Section 753 – Two Years Whether the claim is worth bringing depends on what was said, who said it, who you are, and what you can prove.
Maine’s old criminal libel and slander statutes were repealed, so prosecutors will not charge someone for defaming you. Your remedy is a lawsuit for money damages, and the rules governing it come almost entirely from decisions of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court along with a few procedural statutes.2Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 17 Chapter 77 – Libel and Slander
The Two-Year Deadline
Maine gives you two years to file a defamation lawsuit, and the clock starts on the date of publication — the date the statement was first communicated to at least one person other than you.1Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 14 Section 753 – Two Years Miss it and courts will almost certainly dismiss the case no matter how strong the underlying facts.
This tends to trip people up with online posts. A blog entry or social media comment does not restart the two-year window every time someone new reads it, and it does not restart when you happen to discover it. Most jurisdictions follow the single publication rule, treating the original post date as the accrual date. If the statement has been sitting online for more than two years, it is likely time-barred even though the harm has compounded. If you have just learned about something older than that, talk to a Maine attorney quickly about whether any tolling argument might preserve the claim.
What You Have to Prove
In Rippett v. Bemis, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court adopted the Restatement (Second) of Torts definition of defamation. You need to show a false and defamatory statement about you, an unprivileged publication of that statement to someone else, fault at least amounting to negligence, and either a statement harmful on its face or proof of specific harm caused by the publication.3Justia. Rippett v Bemis, 672 A.2d 82 A statement is defamatory if it would lower your reputation in the community or discourage others from associating or doing business with you.
The statement has to be a provable fact, not an opinion. It has to be about you specifically, not a vague swipe at some group you belong to. And “publication” is a low bar: an email to one coworker counts, as does a Facebook comment or a remark at a town meeting.
Private Person vs. Public Figure
The fault standard depends on who you are. If you are a private individual, you need to show the speaker was negligent about the truth, meaning they failed to take reasonable care to verify what they said. If you are a public figure or public official, you have to prove “actual malice” under New York Times Co. v. Sullivan: the speaker either knew the statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true.4Justia. New York Times Co. v Sullivan That is a much harder case to build, and it is why lawsuits by politicians, celebrities, and prominent business figures so often fail.
When Harm Is Presumed
Most defamation plaintiffs have to prove actual harm — lost wages, damaged business relationships, or similar measurable losses. Defamation per se is the exception. Certain false statements are treated as so inherently damaging that harm is presumed and you do not have to prove a specific loss.
In Rippett v. Bemis, the court recognized that falsely accusing someone of a crime is slander per se, requiring no showing of special harm beyond the publication itself.3Justia. Rippett v Bemis, 672 A.2d 82 Under traditional common law categories, defamation per se also covers false statements that someone has a contagious or loathsome disease, that they engaged in sexual misconduct, or that they are unfit or dishonest in their trade or profession.
What You Can Recover
Defamation in Maine is about compensation, not punishment. Recovery falls into three buckets.
- Actual (compensatory) damages cover measurable losses: lost wages, lost business revenue, medical expenses tied to emotional distress treatment, and similar documented costs.
- Presumed damages are available in defamation per se cases and compensate for reputational harm that is hard to put a number on. No receipts required.
- Punitive damages punish egregious conduct and generally require proof of actual malice. Courts do not award them often, but they are on the table when the defendant knowingly spread a damaging lie.
Retractions Cut Damages
Maine libel defendants have a way to shrink their exposure. If the defendant can show the statement was made by mistake, error, or inadvertence, and then retracted it in writing within a reasonable time — as publicly and fully as the original statement — a court can reduce the damages award.5Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 14 Section 153 – Mitigation of Damages in Action for Libel A retraction does not kill the claim, but it does cap what you ultimately collect. From your side, demanding a retraction early is often a smart move. If they comply, damages shrink; if they refuse, that refusal plays badly at trial.
The Tax Surprise
Defamation awards are generally taxable income. Federal law excludes damages from gross income only when received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness, and emotional distress — the core harm in most defamation cases — is not treated as a physical injury for tax purposes.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness You can subtract amounts you spent on medical care for emotional distress from the taxable portion. If a large settlement or judgment is on the horizon, plan for the tax bill.
What Can Sink Your Case
Truth
Truth is a complete defense. If the defendant proves the statement was substantially true, the claim is over regardless of how damaging the statement was or how they felt about you. The statement does not need to be accurate in every minor detail. Substantial truth is enough.
Privilege
Some statements are shielded even when they are false. Absolute privilege applies to statements made during judicial proceedings, as long as they bear some relation to the proceeding, without regard to the speaker’s motive or belief in the truth. Qualified privilege is broader but weaker, protecting good-faith statements on matters where the speaker has a legitimate duty or interest in communicating.
Employer references are the classic qualified privilege scenario. Maine gives employers a statutory presumption of good faith when they disclose information about a former employee’s job performance to a prospective employer, and overcoming that presumption takes clear and convincing evidence of knowingly false or deliberately misleading disclosure made with malicious intent.7Maine State Legislature. Maine Code Title 26 Section 598 – Employment Reference Immunity Rippett v. Bemis also recognized conditional privilege for government officials speaking within their duties, forfeited if the official knew the statement was false, recklessly disregarded its truth, or acted out of spite.3Justia. Rippett v Bemis, 672 A.2d 82
Opinion
A pure opinion is not actionable. But labeling something an opinion does not automatically protect it. Courts look at whether the statement implies underlying false facts. Saying someone is a terrible dentist is opinion. Saying they bill insurance for procedures they never performed implies a specific, verifiable fact and can support a claim. Context matters too. A heated exchange on social media reads differently from a formal letter to a licensing board.
Maine’s Anti-SLAPP Law
Maine adopted the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, which gives defendants a fast-track path to dismissal in cases attacking their speech, press, petition, or association rights on matters of public concern, along with communications made during government proceedings. The defendant has 60 days after being served to file a special motion to dismiss, and once it is filed, all proceedings including discovery are automatically stayed.8Maine State Legislature. Maine Uniform Public Expression Protection Act
The court will dismiss if the defendant shows the speech is covered and either you cannot make out a prima facie case on each element or the defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Losing that motion means paying the defendant’s court costs, attorney’s fees, and reasonable litigation expenses.8Maine State Legislature. Maine Uniform Public Expression Protection Act The law does not apply to suits against government employees acting in their official capacities, government enforcement actions related to public health or safety, or suits against businesses when the challenged communication relates to the sale or lease of their goods or services.
Suing Over Online Defamation
The elements and defenses are the same online, but the practical hurdles are higher. If someone defames you in a comment on a website, you generally cannot sue the website itself. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act bars treating a provider or user of an interactive computer service as the publisher or speaker of information provided by another content provider.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 230 – Protection for Private Blocking and Screening of Offensive Material Your claim runs against whoever actually wrote the statement, which means anonymous posters have to be unmasked through subpoenas with their own legal standards. Combined with the two-year clock running from the original post date, online defamation claims are harder to pursue than they look, even when the statements are plainly false.