I am not a lawyer so I can not definitively say what constitutes “standard of proof” nor am I familiar with JimRob’s case against the LA Times (though I admire him for standing up against them) but these sound like 2 different issues.
It’s not about knowing the law nor even the standards of proof, which in civil lawsuits is “preponderance of the evidence” (i.e. 51%) whereas in criminal cases it is “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
What it IS about is that you can even fight the big guys relatively cheap to get a better outcome than simply tucking your tail between your legs and whimpering away.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times_v._Free_Republic