§ 73.051.Short Title

A short title with a construction directive attached: this subchapter may be cited as the Defamation Mitigation Act, and shall be liberally construed.

The Act was added in 2013 and changed how a Texas defamation claim begins. Its central requirement is that a person may maintain an action for defamation only if they have made a timely and sufficient request for a correction, clarification, or retraction — or the defendant has made one.

The liberal construction instruction points in a particular direction. Requirements that gate access to a cause of action are ordinarily read strictly against the party invoking them. This directs the opposite, in favour of the Act's purpose.

That purpose is stated in the next section: to provide a method for a person who has been defamed to mitigate any perceived damage or injury. The Act is aimed at correction rather than at damages, on the view that a prompt retraction repairs a reputation better than a verdict years later.

The consequences of the request requirement are graduated rather than absolute. Failing to request at all can support abatement of the suit; failing to request within 90 days of learning of the publication bars exemplary damages; and a correction that is made bars exemplary damages absent actual malice.