Code Civ. Proc., § 461 · Chapter 7. General Rules of Pleading

Code Civ. Proc., § 461

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

In any action within Section 460 or 460.5, the defendant may, in his answer, allege both the truth of the matter charged as defamatory, and any mitigating circumstances, to reduce the amount of damages. Whether he proves the justification or not, he may give in evidence the mitigating circumstances.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 1972, Ch. 594.

Source of truth

Edition: As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP&sectionNum=461.
Text hash: sha256 ae205c72d955965a2d636cff0323b33125bd17948adbcfca6bb54791cd7b6d40
Composed by: compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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Code of Civil Procedure

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