Is there an absolute immunity for a judge who was found to have no jurisdiction?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Gonzalez v. Ministry of Attorney General, 2009 BCSC 639 (CanLII):

Finally, in my view, the exception to absolute immunity established in Sirros v. Moore is an extremely narrow one. It will be the rare case indeed where a plaintiff can show that a judge acted with the knowledge that he or she had no jurisdiction. …

In light of the constitutional importance of judicial immunity, I conclude that any “bad faith” exception to judicial immunity that exists is just as narrow, if not more so, than the exception to prosecutorial immunity addressed in Nelles. [Nelles v. Ontario 1989 CanLII 77 (SCC), [1989] 2 S.C.R. 170]

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