I Had My Memoir Legally Vetted: Here’s What I Learned

By Jillian Barnet

Four years and a dozen drafts into writing my memoir, the prospect of publishing started to become real. While I had done my best to be accurate and generous to the real-life characters populating my book, I worried about being sued for libel if someone disagreed with my account. Libel, a form of defamation in writing, is a false statement that has the potential to harm someone’s reputation. Especially when we’re writing about sensitive topics such as mental illness, abus...