§ 73.061.Admissibility of Evidence of Correction, Clarification, or Retraction

An exclusionary rule protecting the correction process from being used as evidence.

A request for correction, its contents, and the acceptance or refusal of the request are not admissible at trial. An offer of a correction, its contents, and a refusal of the correction are likewise not admissible.

The fact that a correction was made and its contents are not admissible either — except in mitigation of damages under the libel subchapter's mitigation provision. If a correction is received into evidence, the request for it may also be received.

The rule works like the exclusion of settlement negotiations, and for the same reason. A publisher that offers a correction should not have the offer used as an admission of falsity, and a claimant who requests one should not have the request treated as evidence of anything.

Without the protection, neither side could safely participate, and the Act's central mechanism would be unusable.

The single exception is the one the Act is built around. A completed correction comes in to mitigate damages, which is precisely the benefit the publisher earned by making it — and it must be specially pleaded under the mitigation provision to be used at all.

The final clause prevents a one-sided presentation: a defendant putting the correction before the jury opens the door to the request that prompted it.