Judges to be protected against civil lawsuits after Salvatore Vasta sued over wrongful imprisonment

Judge Salvatore Vasta was found not to be entitled to immunity from a civil lawsuit because he had acted outside his jurisdiction in a family court matter. Photograph: QLD cricket

The federal government is preparing to introduce reforms granting greater protections to inferior court judges after a landmark case in which a wrongfully imprisoned man successfully sued Salvatore Vasta.

Vasta, a judge in the federal circuit court, was successfully sued this year by a man who he falsely imprisoned during a routine property dispute after a series of “serious and fundamental errors” and “gross and obvious irregularity of procedure”.