For those interested in defamation matters, the High Court of Australia in Aktas v Westpac Banking Corporation Limited [2010] HCA 25 (4 August 2010) http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2010/25 held (by a 3-2 majority) that when a bank mistakenly indicates to customers that a cheque has been dishonoured (where in fact funds were available), it cannot rely on the common law defence of qualified privilege to resist an action for defamation. The majority (French CJ, Gummow & Hayne JJ) concluded that the privilege did not apply because there was no "benefit or advantage to society" [35] in the bank communicating a falsehood to those who received back the dishonoured cheques. The two dissenting judgments (Heydon J and Kiefel J) for slightly different reasons concluded that, even though the bank was mistaken, the general circumstances were such that prompt communication of the bank's intention not to honour the cheques (even though mistaken) was a matter that was in the general interest of the bank and the recipients of the communication- see eg [114].

Regards

Neil