In bankruptcy court, the presumption in favor of public access to judicial records can be overcome if “scandalous or defamatory matter” is contained in a paper filed therein. (See 11 U.S.C. Section 107). Curiously, there is an absolute judicial privilege for statements made in connection with and relevant to a…
Virginia recognizes an absolute privilege against defamation claims in three situations: (1) statements made in connection with judicial proceedings (the so-called “judicial privilege”); (2) statements made in the course of legislative proceedings; and (3) communications among military officers. A person who makes a defamatory statement in one of these contexts…
In most (but not all) cases, absolute immunity applies to statements made by government contractors to government investigators in the course of an official investigation. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia recently addressed this issue in Kolakowski v. Lynch and found that statements made to…
Sometimes the context in which a statement is made provides the speaker with a qualified privilege against defamation claims. A qualified privilege generally attaches to communications between persons on a subject in which the persons share an interest or duty. If such a privilege applies, the speaker will not be…
The First Amendment dictates that religious organizations are entitled to decide matters of church governance, faith and doctrine without state interference. Accordingly, as a general rule, courts may not hear disputes involving religious law, principle, doctrine, discipline, custom or administration. In what has come to be known as the “ecclesiastical…
Where an otherwise defamatory statement is subject to a qualified privilege, a plaintiff can overcome that privilege by showing that the defendant acted with actual malice. However, “actual malice” in the context of a defamation action–also known as “New York Times malice,” is a different concept than the common-law malice…
Applying Virginia law, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld a $1.4 million jury verdict against Air Wisconsin back in March of 2012, finding it was responsible for slander of a former pilot and not entitled to immunity. On June 17, 2013, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider the…
If you work for the federal government and a co-worker spreads false and malicious rumors about you that damage your reputation, it will be very difficult to pursue a claim for libel or slander against the individual in question. The recent Maryland case of Shake v. Gividen demonstrates the hurdles…
Workplace defamation suits will usually raise privilege issues. When one employee complains to a manager or supervisor about another employee and falsely maligns the other employee’s reputation in the process, the court will need to sort out whether the complaint is protected by qualified privilege. If it is, the statement…
Judicial privilege (also known as judicial immunity) allows a party to litigation or other judicial proceeding to make statements during the course of the proceeding that would otherwise be considered slanderous or libelous. The Virginia Supreme Court recently held that judicial privilege will also apply to certain statements made in…