Jury sides with Louisiana Supreme Court justice in rare defamation win for public official

A jury sided with Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes on Monday, finding a local newspaper and two former editors defamed him in a 2019 editorial. The Iberville Parish jury awarded Hughes $300,000 in damages for an investigative editorial published in Baton Rouge-based newspaper, The Advocate, according to WWL Louisiana, a New Orleans-based CBS affiliate. The justice originally sought $10 million in damages for the piece, which highlighted a custody battle that took place 20 years prior to the editorial's publication. The custody battle sparked an FBI probe into Hughes and his handling of the case as a Livingston Parish district judge in the late 1990s. Hughes's win suggests the justice was able to prove the outlet acted with “actual malice," a legal standard of proof needed in defamation cases where a public figure is the defendant. The standard is difficult to meet, as it places the legal burden on the plaintiff to show a respondent either knew a statement was false or recklessly failed to verify it. “We are pleased that justice was served and Jeff was able to clear his name from this unfortunate defamation," an attorney for Hughes said following the ruling, as reported by WWL Louisiana. The case stemmed from a joint investigation by The Advocate and WWL Louisiana with the headline, “Our Views: Before Jeff Hughes landed on Louisiana Supreme Court, he made a mockery of justice.” The editorial stated that Hughes failed to recuse himself from an abuse-related cust…