Opinion ID: 2585525
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: promoting the candid, objective, and undistorted disclosure of evidence

Text: The United States Supreme Court (U.S. Supreme Court) has noted that underlying the litigation privilege is public policy which requires that the paths which lead to the ascertainment of truth should be left as free and unobstructed as possible. Briscoe v. LaHue, 460 U.S. 325, 333, 103 S.Ct. 1108, 75 L.Ed.2d 96 (1983) (citing Calkins v. Sumner, 13 Wis. 193, 197 (1860)). The Court explained: A witness's apprehension of subsequent damages liability might induce two forms of self-censorship. First, witnesses might be reluctant to come forward to testify. And[,] once a witness is on the stand, his testimony might be distorted by the fear of subsequent liability. Even within the constraints of the witness's oath[,] there may be various ways to give an account or to state an opinion. These alternatives may be more or less detailed and may differ in emphasis and certainty. A witness who knows that he might be forced to defend a subsequent lawsuit, and perhaps to pay damages, might be inclined to shade his testimony in favor of the potential plaintiff, to magnify uncertainties, and thus to deprive the finder of fact of candid, objective, and undistorted evidence. Briscoe, 460 U.S. at 333, 103 S.Ct. 1108 (citing Veder, Absolute Immunity in Defamation: Judicial Proceedings, 9 Colum. L.Rev. 463, 470 (1909)); see also Murphy v. A.A. Mathews, a Division of CRS Group Engineers, Inc., 841 S.W.2d 671, 674, reh'g overruled, 841 S.W.2d 671 (Mo.1992). Thus, the litigation privilege is based upon the assumption that exposing witnesses to liability may result in distorted evidence presented to the finder of fact. The litigation privilege's purpose of encouraging candid, objective, and undistorted evidence to better enable the finder of fact to uncover the truth is consistent with this court's statements regarding the function of the courts. We have described courts as forums for the discovery of truth, State v. Haanio, 94 Hawai`i 405, 415, 16 P.3d 246, 256 (2001) (quoting People v. Barton, 12 Cal.4th 186, 47 Cal.Rptr.2d 569, 906 P.2d 531, 536 (1995)), and have stated that courts perform two essential tasks: sifting through conflicting versions of the facts to discover where truth lies, and applying the correct legal principles to the facts as found. Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Breiner, 89 Hawai`i 167, 173, 969 P.2d 1285, 1291 (1999) (quoting In re Vincenti, 92 N.J. 591, 458 A.2d 1268, 1275 (1983)). Thus, discouraging candid disclosure by witnesses reduces the amount and quality of evidence available to the finder of fact, thereby impairing the court's ability to sift through conflicting versions of the facts to discover the truth. Generally speaking, policy considerations favor limiting liability for litigation misconduct because the threat of liability might reduce the quantity and quality of evidence available to the finder of fact. However, in the present case, the defendants are alleged to have fraudulently distorted the evidence presented in a prior proceeding. Clearly, such misconduct is directly contrary to the policy of promoting the candid, objective, and undistorted disclosure of evidence. Accordingly, this policy does not favor limiting liability in a subsequent proceeding where there is an allegation of fraud committed in the prior proceeding.