What do you need to know about anti SLAPP laws?

Short for strategic lawsuits against public participation, SLAPPs have become an all-too-common tool for intimidating and silencing criticism through expensive, baseless legal proceedings. Anti-SLAPP laws are meant to provide a remedy to SLAPP suits.

What does the acronym anti SLAPP stand for?

Anti-SLAPP laws are designed to provide for early dismissal of meritless lawsuits filed against people for the exercise of First Amendment rights. The acronym “SLAPP” stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – a phrase coined by two law school professors in the late 1980s.

What’s the statute for frustrating SLAPPs in California?

In 1992 California enacted Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16, a statute intended to frustrate SLAPPs by providing a quick and inexpensive defense. It provides for a special motion that a defendant can file at the outset of a lawsuit to strike a complaint when it arises from conduct that falls within the rights of petition or free speech.

What was the anti SLAPP statute in Metcalf V U-Haul?

Metcalf v. U-Haul International, Inc., 118 Cal. App. 4th 1261 (2004) (under Section 425.17, commercial defendants cannot invoke the protections of the anti-SLAPP statute by claiming their advertising impacted the public interest).

Short for strategic lawsuits against public participation, SLAPPs have become an all-too-common tool for intimidating and silencing criticism through expensive, baseless legal proceedings. Anti-SLAPP laws are meant to provide a remedy to SLAPP suits.

Can a motion to strike be an anti SLAPP motion?

That Special Motion to Strike is the anti-SLAPP motion. The SLAPP can be, and often is, a cross-complaint filed in the action. That is where many attorneys who are unfamiliar with SLAPP law get into trouble, because they file a cross-complaint that attacks the complaint, and that itself is a SLAPP.

Which is the anti SLAPP Capitol of the world?

California is truly the anti-SLAPP capitol. Before proceeding any further, let’s be sure you have a good grasp of the lingo. The “SLAPP” is the lawsuit filed by the Plaintiff against the Defendant, which seeks to either silence the Defendant’s free speech, or to prevent the Defendant from seeking a “ right of petition.

Can a SLAPP be used in a defamation case?

The SCC confirmed that the anti-SLAPP regime may be invoked in any proceeding that arises from public interest expression and that its application is not limited to defamation suits. It could therefore apply to expression that is in breach of a contract.