Legal Question in Legal Ethics in California

This is not a Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility question. This category is for questions about the laws, State Bar Rules and ethical standards governing lawyers and the legal profession. And in any case your question is too vague to answer. Defamation law is very case specific. Details are required in order to evaluate any particular situation. I can tell you, however, that republication of a defamatory statement is a new act of defamation that exposes you to liability directly, even if you got the defamatory statement elsewhere.

Remember, too, that people can file lawsuits for anything. Whether they will get very far is another story. Nevertheless, if a person is sued in a complicated defamation lawsuit, it would require experienced (and costly) legal assistance. Therefore, unless you have the ability to defend yourself or financial means to hire an attorney, you might strongly consider what you are about to write. I concur with Mr. McCormick's observation that the language that one uses must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether it is or might be defamatory. Opinions generally are not defamatory. False statements of fact might be. There sometimes is a fine line or gray area between the two, and people sometimes are sued for giving their opinions that the target believes are false statements of fact.