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It seems like an inconsequential distinction to me, not worth hanging defamation liability upon. It's true that an accusation could be false either intentionally or by mistake. If someone makes an intentionally false accusation (read: lying) and you know that, then wouldn't it be misleading (or perhaps even lying) to accuse your accuser of a mistake instead of a lie?
Even if the point you make is adopted as regular practice (where the accused avoid claiming anyone is lying, just that they're mistaken) would it make any practical difference? If the accuser denies that they made a mistake but you insist otherwise, is that materially different from accusing them of lying?
When denying an accusation, I don't think you need to specify whether the accuser is lying or merely mistaken. Just that they're wrong. If you go into specifics, e.g. explicitly accuse the accuser of lying, I think it'd be correct to leave you open to liability. But that level of specificity isn't necessary for denying an accusation.
I disagree, the specifics are important here. I deal with this constantly with clients who deny the allegations but then have no follow-up explanation. In a hit & run case, the defendant denies he was driving the car. Ok then who was driving your family's car then? In a stabbing case, the defendant denies the witness correctly IDed him. Ok then who else had access to this building? In another case, the defendant claims the witness is lying. Ok how do you know? why are they lying? what's their motive? when did they coordinate their stories? etc and so on.
It's frustrating to me when clients air out vague general denials because then there's nothing else for me to do as a defense attorney but also on a personal level it makes me suspect the truth of everything they tell me. Generally speaking, as a rough heuristic, the truly innocent clients of mine tend to express the same amount of curiosity about their case that I do. If they were really IDed incorrectly, they absolutely want to know who this doppelganger is. They barely can stop themselves to give me names of people to talk to, companies to subpoena, surveillance cameras to examine, etc.
I know this list of examples is in no way exhaustive, but only one of those examples had the accused person making a positive claim about someone else being dishonest (the lying witness). The others seem to me, if those questions were answered and explained, to be just fine ways to deny the accusation without impugning the accuser's honesty or otherwise defaming them. For the claim that a witness lying, I'm thinking the defendant shouldn't claim the witness is lying unless they have some specific evidence or motive, and if they lack such a thing, they should retreat to the "witness is wrong" claim rather than "witness is lying."
IANAL, so I can't speak with authority on any of this, and I can't speak to the ins and outs of how a defense strategy gets formed and implemented. It just seems to me that, unless there's specific reason to think so, there's no need to claim that an accuser is lying, but rather just wrong. If they claim that the accuser is lying but lack the evidence to substantiate it, then they shouldn't have made such a claim as part of their defense in the first place, so not being able to do so for fear of a later defamation lawsuit down the line doesn't seem like a loss. If they do have such evidence, then that would strengthen their defense and also protect them, however imperfectly, against defamation lawsuits.
My point was broader than just the scenario of calling the accuser a liar, I was highlighting examples to illustrate how unconvincing vague general denials are. If someone levies an allegation that you deny, the natural reaction from bystanders is to wonder why an accuser would lie or otherwise be wrong about something so serious. A denial is much more credible if you can offer some sort of explanation to that burning question.
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