Judicial Proceeding Definition:

In Ellis v Kaye-Kibbey, Justice Maloney of the United States District Court (Michigan) needed to determine if a particular forum in which an alleged defamatory statement was made, was judicial as if it was, a privilege might exist:

"For this purpose, judicial proceedings are broadly defined to include any hearing before a tribunal or administrative board that performs a judicial function."

In Durham v Guest, the issue before Justice Chavez of the Supreme Court of New Mexico was whether, for the purposes of the tort of abuse of judicial process, an arbitration constituted judicial process:

"We ... hold that ... arbitration proceedings are judicial proceedings for the purpose of the tort of malicious abuse of process."

In Trapp v Mackie, Justice Diplock wrote of several factors which can assist a judicial determination as to whether or not a forum is a judicial proceeding:

"[O]ne must consider under what authority the tribunal acts..., the nature of the question into which it is its duty to inquire ..., the procedure adopted by it in carrying out the inquiry .., and ... the legal consequences of the conclusion reached by the tribunal as a result of the inquiry."

REFERENCES:

• Duhaime, Lloyd, Defamation and the Absolute Privilege for Statements Made in Judicial Proceedings
• Duhaime, Lloyd, Legal Definition of Quasi-Judicial
• Durham v. Guest, 204 P. 3d 19 (2009)
• Ellis v. Kaye-Kibbey, 581 F. Supp. 2d 861 (2008)
• Trapp v Mackie [1979] 1 WLR 377