Oparaugo v. Watts’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 41 district · 34 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 89 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) that the defendant made a false and defamatory statement concerning the plaintiff; (2) that the defendant published the statement without privilege to a third party; (3) that the defendant’s fault in publishing the statement amounted to at least negligence; and (4) either that the statement was actionable as a matter of law irrespective of special harm or that its publication caused the plaintiff special harm.”

   13 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. Clinton · Wood v. Am. Fed'n of Gov't Emps.

2. “[D]efamatory matter concerning another in a report of any official proceeding or any meeting open to the public which deals with matters of public concern is published on a conditionally privileged occasion if the report is (a) accurate and complete, or a fair abridgement of what has occurred, and (b) published for the purpose of informing the public as to a matter of public concern.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 934 F. Supp. 2d 204 - Von Kahl v. Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. · 810 F. Supp. 2d 138 - Von Kahl v. Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.

3. “An attorney at law is absolutely privileged to publish defamatory matter concerning another in communications preliminary to a proposed judicial proceeding, or in the institution of, or during the course and as part of, a judicial proceeding in which he participates as counsel, if it has some relation to the proceeding.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 931 F. Supp. 2d 21 - Murphy v. Livingsocial, Inc.