SLAPPDash
The Need for a Federal Law to Protect Public Participation
1. What is a SLAPP?
SLAPPs are Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. SLAPP filers don’t go to court to seek justice. Rather, SLAPP filers intend to intimidate, harass and silence people who disagree with them or their activities.
The rights to speech and petition are enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Free speech and healthy debate are vital to the well-being of a democracy. In fact, the United States Supreme Court has said that the right to petition the government is the very foundation of our democracy.
Although the rights to speech and petition are protected by the Constitution, over the past few decades, some people and corporations have threatened those rights by using lawsuits to silence and harass their critics. The object of a SLAPP is not to win – it’s to get concerned citizens out of the public debate and into court. Once a person is dragged into court, it doesn’t matter that the court ultimately finds the lawsuit to be baseless and that the SLAPP victim’s speech or petition was protected activity. By the time the court makes that decision, the SLAPP victim has incurred attorney’s fees and endured discovery, the process by which parties in litigation can gain access to the opponent’s records and require depositions in preparation for trial. The average court case lasts five years. Imagine trying to work your job and care for your family while fighting and financing a legal battle for that long.
2. What do SLAPPs look like?
SLAPPs take the form of a variety of lawsuits. They commonly masquerade as defamation or business interference tort suits. Civil rights, anti-trust, and intellectual property laws have all been used to bring SLAPPs. However, SLAPP filers can be very creative. Recently, a union was SLAPPed by a corporation that alleged that the union’s organizing activities constituted a conspiracy under federal organized crime laws.
3. Who is affected by SLAPPs?
Just as SLAPPs take a variety of forms, so too do SLAPP targets. Almost anyone who dares to share an opinion can be SLAPPed. Homeowners and tenants protesting development projects, consumers reporting on products, and workers filing complaints about health and safety violations have all been SLAPPed.
4. What can be done about SLAPPs?
The best protection against SLAPPs is the ability to quickly dismiss the SLAPP, and to recoup attorney's fees, costs and damages incurred in defending the SLAPP.
Right now, about half the states have anti-SLAPP protections. However, there is no federal anti-SLAPP law, and SLAPP filers can bring suit in federal court to avoid state law protections.
Now is the time for Congress to pass the proposed Citizen Participation in Government and Society Act. Like many existing state anti-SLAPP laws, the proposed law provides a mechanism for the court to dismiss a SLAPP very early in the process of litigation – before the SLAPP target has spent very much time or money. The law also provides that a SLAPP defendant can seek attorney’s fees after the case has been dismissed.
Of course, meritorious lawsuits should proceed in court. But the very definition of a SLAPP is a suit that is brought strategically, using the court as a weapon, not to protect legal rights. The Act would protect victims of SLAPPs, but will not affect those who bring meritorious suits.
5. How Can I Help?
1. Join us! We welcome the support of organizations and individuals that recognize the threat to freedom of speech and the right to petition posed by SLAPPs. Please support our effort.
2. Contact your Representatives in Congress or the Senate to let them know you are concerned about SLAPPs. Click here for a sample letter.
3. Spread the word of our effort! Tell other individuals and organizations who would be interested about the effort. See our Support the Proposed Law page for a Tool Kit of materials for use in promoting the effort.