Fast forward to today and our defamation laws are woefully out of date with the morals of our time. True, people can no longer be imprisoned for libel, but these laws today are sometimes used by the very wealthy to silence and destroy their enemies. The truth is that these cases do not need a High Court judge and the killer costs of the hearings in the High Court. Making libel actions a small claim would actually mean more people could afford the risk of litigation. And although there has to be some recourse to punish a gross libel, the utter destruction of the wrongdoer is a disproportionate penalty.