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N.Y. CVR Law § 78

This is the official text of N.Y. CVR Law § 78, part of New York’s CVR Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "CVR Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Mitigating circumstances in action for libel or slander

Official statutory text

§ 78. Mitigating circumstances in action for libel or slander. In an\naction for libel or slander the defendant may prove mitigating\ncircumstances, including the sources of his information and the grounds\nfor his belief, whether or not he has pleaded or attempted to prove any\ndefense. A defendant in default for want of an answer may prove such\nmitigating circumstances upon a reference or inquiry to ascertain the\namount of the plaintiff's damages. Matter tending only to mitigate or\nreduce damages is a partial defense and may be set forth in the answer.\n

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.