I hope this goes well:

A scholar known for his work on guns and crime filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt, co-author of the best-seller “Freakonomics.” John Lott Jr. of Virginia, a former U. of C. visiting professor, alleges that Levitt defamed him in the book by claiming that other scholars had tried and failed to confirm Lott’s conclusion that allowing people to carry concealed weapons reduces crime.

…

The lawsuit alleges that Levitt and his publisher, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., made the statements with reckless disregard for whether they were true and that the book damaged Lott’s reputation.

I don’t know about the details of Lott’s lawsuit but in some states there are a lot of exceptions for this sort of thing.  You can knowingly lie about someone, cause them great damage, and be untouchable by a lawsuit.  I was told by a Hindu friend those sort of people will be reincarnated as a lower life form–perhaps as manure eating flies. I confess to having urges to accelerate certain slime-balls toward their destiny.