Question

Pleas provide 3 examples of recent SLAPP or anti-SLAPP lawsuits (ie. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver/Bob Murray). What is your position on whether anti-SLAPP legislation is good or bad for business?  

Answer 1

ANS.

SLAPP suit Stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. Lawsuit filed strategically by a corporation against a group or activist opposing certain action taken by the corporation, usually in the realm of an environmental protest. Typical claims underlying a SLAPP suit are libel, slander or restraint of business. Many states have adopted anti-SLAPP statutes in the interest of protecting free speech that provide for speedy hearings of the claims and the possibility of the defendant recovering legal fees and punitive damages.

To protect freedom of speech some jurisdictions have passed anti-SLAPP laws (often called SLAPP-back laws). These laws often function by allowing a defendant to file a motion to strike and/or dismiss on the grounds that the case involves protected speech on a matter of public concern. The plaintiff then bears the burden of showing a probability that they will prevail. If the plaintiffs fail to meet their burden their claim is dismissed and the plaintiffs may be required to pay a penalty for bringing the case.

Anti-SLAPP laws occasionally come under criticism from those who believe that there should not be barriers to the right to petition for those who sincerely believe they have been wronged, regardless of ulterior motives. Hence, the difficulty in drafting SLAPP legislation, and in applying it, is to craft an approach which affords an early termination to invalid, abusive suits, without denying a legitimate day in court to valid good faith claims. Anti-SLAPP laws are generally considered to have a favorable effect, and many lawyers have fought to enact stronger laws protecting against SLAPPs.A common feature of SLAPPs is forum shopping, wherein plaintiffs find courts that are more favourable towards the claims to be brought than the court in which the defendant (or sometimes plaintiffs) live.

In the 2009 case Comins vs. VanVoorhis, a Florida man named Christopher Comins filed a defamation suit against a University of Florida graduate student after the student blogged about a video of Comins repeatedly shooting someone's pet dogs. This was cited as an example of a SLAPP by the radio show on the Media.

a strong anti-SLAPP law example A man sued a Charlottesville, Virginia weekly newspaper for publishing a news story about his support for preserving Confederate monuments in Charlottesville, as well as the reporter who wrote the story, and a University of Virginia professor who commented on the issue. The case was dismissed, but the judge would not consider the existing Virginia anti-SLAPP statute or treat the case as a SLAPP.