The question whether the common law abuse of process doctrine from Thomson v Lambert survives the enactment of s 133 of the Civil Law (Wrongs) Act 2002 (ACT) remains unresolved and was referred to the full Court of Appeal. Where separate defamation proceedings are brought against different entities within the same corporate group in respect of substantially the same publication, the statutory provision (s 133) may not be determinative of whether the proceedings constitute an abuse of process. Whether a report of allegations in civil pleadings is capable of conveying defamatory imputations depends on the context of the particular publication and is not resolved by any absolute rule.
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