Practice question
A lawyer files a relevant submission in a quasi-judicial proceeding but separately circulates it to unrelated members of the general public. The lawyer invokes Arquiza to claim that filing automatically protects that separate distribution. Which assessment is correct?
- Filing automatically protects every later distribution
- Bar membership makes the recipients irrelevant
- Public circulation is legally identical to required service
- The unrestricted distribution does not meet the stated non-publication condition; filing alone supplies no automatic absolute protection for that act
- Failure of this condition conclusively proves every element of libel
Legal references
- Arquiza v. People, G.R. No. 261627, November 13, 2024, MAIN decision, absolute privilege and four-fold test: https://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2024/nov2024/gr_261627_2024.html
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