What good faith means in a disclosure
Launch library · evergreen read
Good faith in a disclosure generally means the person reporting genuinely believes the information is true, rather than knowing it to be false or making the report for a purely malicious or self-serving reason. It does not require the concern to later be proven correct, only that it was raised honestly and reasonably.
This standard protects reporters who raise a genuine concern that later turns out, after investigation, not to be substantiated, since an honest mistake made in good faith is treated very differently from a deliberately false or reckless claim made to damage someone else's reputation or career.
Establishing good faith usually rests on the reasonableness of the belief at the time the report was made, including what information was actually available to the reporter and how carefully they checked it before coming forward. A report based on careful observation generally satisfies this standard far more easily than one based on rumour alone.