Delaware

Grade: D

Delaware has a weak anti-SLAPP law. It enacted anti-SLAPP legislation in 1992.

Jurisdiction Statute or Case Law? Any Forum? Any Public Issue? Mandatory Attorney Fees/Costs? Additional Burden? Amendment After Grant? Amendment While Pending? Immediate Appeal?
Delaware Del. Code. Ann. tit. 10 section 8136 (2011) Y Y Y ?

DEL. CODE ANN. tit. 10, §§ 8136 – 8138 (1992)

Statements made by an applicant, permittee, or related person regarding a government licensing, permitting, or other decision, are protected. Delaware also provides for a SLAPPBack cause of action.  Under DEL. CODE ANN. tit. 10, § 8138, a SLAPP defendant may recover compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to fees and costs, upon an additional demonstration that the SLAPP was commenced or continued for the purpose of harassing, intimidating, punishing, or otherwise maliciously inhibiting, the free exercise of speech, petition or association rights.

Delaware SLAPP Stories:

Featured
Superior Court Dismisses Anti-SLAPP Complaint Aimed at Arbitration
Superior Court Dismisses Anti-SLAPP Complaint Aimed at Arbitration

A Superior Court judge refused to use the DC anti-SLAPP statute to stop an arbitration, nothing that the dispute was subject to Delaware law (pursuant to a choice-of-law provision in the arbitration agreement) and Delaware’s much narrower anti-SLAPP statute did not reach the conduct at issue.

Delaware's Anti-SLAPP Statute Limited to Land Use Disputes
Delaware's Anti-SLAPP Statute Limited to Land Use Disputes

In a rare case involving resort to a Delaware statute's legislative history, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster held that Delaware's anti-SLAPP statute is to be construed narrowly so as to be applicable only to public petition and participation in land use proceedings, and is not a broad legal protection against defamation claims.