Legal Question in Personal Injury in Kentucky

Newspapers have a First Amendment right to publish accurate stories about arrests and about criminal charges. They do not need the victim's consent. Any law which tried to limit the right to publish such stories would be unconstitutional.

Many newspapers and other media outlets choose not to identify the victim in such stories, but that is just a policy decision and is not required by law.

You ask whether you can sue, but you don't even tell us whether you are the victim or the accused. I presume that you are the accused. Even if you are the victim, you have not told us whether the story said anything about you, let alone whether what it said was accurate. And if you are the accused, is even less likely that you could have a valid claim against the paper.

The first claim you ask about is invasion of privacy. Arrestees do not have a privacy interest in the fact that they were arrested or in the reasons why. Those are matters of public record. Publishing information that is publicly available cannot be an invasion of privacy.

You also ask about defamation. One of the things you would have to prove in order to win a defamation case is that the information published about you was false. The story probably did not say you are guilty of the charges against you; instead, it most likely said that you had been arrested and told readers what the charges are. That is accurate information, even if the charges ultimately prove to be unfounded. You cannot win a defamation case under those circumstances.

Even if the article included some false information about you, winning a defamation case in a situation like yours can be quite difficult. It also might not results in a significant judgment even if you do win; that would make it difficult to find a lawyer willing to represent you on a contingent-fee basis.

I might see things differently with more information, but based upon the limited details you have provided I can't be very encouraging.