Letter · Defamation & Media Law
Retraction and correction demand
A demand that a publisher or broadcaster correct specified statements. California Civil Code section 48a is included only as one state's statute, and only where that section applies.
- Kind
- Letter. A letter or email you adapt and send.
- Where it applies
- United States
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the authority it cites, for United States.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when the client wants a correction of identified statements. Do not send it as a national retraction notice. Do not insert a deadline from section 48a unless the lawyer has decided that section applies.
Used for these tasks
- Draft a pre-action concerns or retraction notice
- Compare the published text with a proposed correction
- Draft a settlement deed and a corrective statement or apology
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may quote the statements the lawyer marks and address the letter to the publisher the lawyer names. The lawyer decides whether any state statute applies and what correction is asked for.
AI may
- Quote the statements from the captured publication, without smoothing the words
- Insert a state statute only from text the lawyer pastes in
- Flag a deadline that is not tied to a statute the lawyer has named
AI must not
- Must not assert that California Civil Code section 48a applies outside its terms
- Must not threaten exemplary damages as if they follow automatically
- Must not send the letter
The lawyer checks
- The quoted words match the capture
- Any deadline is either omitted or taken from a statute the lawyer has opened
- The letter does not concede a defense or draft the publisher's correction for them to sign as their own words, beyond the correction the client asks to be published
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is available after you log in. It is free. When you log in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Defamation & Media Law
- Concerns notice under the uniform Defamation Acts (with UK letter-of-claim and NZ variants)
- Response to a concerns notice: further particulars notice, or letter declining to make an offer to make amends
- Journalist and informant identity record
- Defences assessment checklist for a publisher facing a defamation complaint
- Deed of settlement and release for a defamation dispute, with agreed correction, apology and removal terms
- Offer to make amends in response to a concerns notice
- Serious harm evidence table (Defamation Act s 10A)
- Preservation letter to a publisher
- Victorian proceeding suppression order check
- Defamation claim assessment checklist for an aggrieved person: publication capture, serious harm, limitation and concerns notice timing
- Digital intermediary liability map for an online publication (Defamation Act s 31A)
- Objection notice about an intimate image
- Pre-publication legal review checklist (including AI-generated text, images and quotes)
- Publication capture worksheet
- Correction, clarification or apology for publication, with placement and prominence schedule
- Takedown demand for AI-generated deepfake or synthetic content (to poster or platform)
- Elements of a serious invasion of privacy
- Complaint notice to a digital intermediary (s 31A accessible complaints mechanism) with UK and US variants
- Newsroom and publisher generative AI and synthetic media policy
All precedents for Defamation & Media Law · Tasks and AI use in this area