Opinion ID: 2547919
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Outer Limit of Witness Immunity

Text: ¶ 5 At common law witnesses were immune from suits to recover damages for harm occasioned by testimony given in judicial proceedings. [6] Federal constitutional jurisprudence has extended witness immunity to civil suits brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. [7] Oklahoma has long recognized that lawyers, parties and witnesses are immune from defamation and certain other claims rested upon communications made during, or preliminary to, judicial proceedings as long as the communication is in some way relevant to the proceeding. [8] Recent Oklahoma jurisprudence has extended the witness immunity shield to protect against tort actions for damages occasioned by one's perjury (but not to criminal prosecutions for perjury). [9] ¶ 6 Adverse collateral public-law consequences of a witness' testimony, such as those flowing from a criminal prosecution for perjury, professional discipline, and from other forms of censure and sanction, fall outside the ambit of witness immunity. That immunity will not protect an attorney from professional discipline based on unethical conduct resulting in defamation. [10] A number of states and the federal government have imposed professional discipline on lawyers for perjury and other litigation-related misconduct, holding that these consequences, though immunized from civil liability, nonetheless lie dehors the witness immunity shield. [11] Others have indicated (in dicta) that an attorney remains subject to professional discipline for litigation-related misconduct even where redress by civil action is unavailable because of witness immunity. [12]