Autobiography - legal implications

MENU

Autobiography home
Research
Planning
Legal
Copyright
Writing
Pictures
Editing
Publishing
References

Legal

"I can say what I like, it’s my book."

Biographies and autobiographies have unique legal implications because the people are real.

Don’t lie. This will do you no favours and can get you into serious trouble. If you say something bad about a person make sure that you can prove it. You can’t libel someone if it’s the truth.

Also you can’t libel someone if they are dead, you can lie about dead people – not that I recommend it.

If you get caught in libel you might get lucky and just have to withdraw the book. At worst you could face the prospect of paying serious damages to the person you’ve libelled.