Nix v. Sawyer

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that statements made by lawyers and judges in the course of legal proceedings are absolutely privileged from defamations claims
• defining relevance as “a showing that the utterance in question is reasonably germane to the pending action”
• explaining that abuse of process addresses “abusive litigation”
• Where the communication giving rise to the defamation claim was a Court of Chancery filing for a temporary restraining order, the court determined it was privileged.
• “The common law rule protecting statements of judges, parties, witnesses and attorneys offered in the course of judicial proceedings from a cause of action in defamation is well-recognized in this jurisdiction.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).