For our user agree- ment, click here . The House easily passed House Bill 2805, introduced by Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, to grant immunity from lawsuits to people appearing before public bodies. Importantly, it would allow courts to award attorney fees, other costs and punitive damages to defendants winning a suit. It now awaits a work session in the Senate Judiciary Committee. One exception to the immunity provision has drawn the attention of the real estate industry.
Critics say that requiring both conditions is too permissive for witnesses.
But senators should remember that the legislation's goal is not to provide grounds for suits, but to make it harder to intimidate people from testifying. The bill's current language does, indeed, create a high barrier for successfully suing somebody for defamation before a public body, but it still protects against wildly irresponsible and immaterial allegations by a witness. Besides, that high bar to an immunity exception is the same that state law already provides for witnesses before a legislative committee. There's no reason to give witnesses before city councils less protection than those before the Legislature enjoy. This is a good bill as it stands.