Illinois

Grade: B

Illinois has a good anti-SLAPP law, the Citizen Participation Act.

Jurisdiction Statute or Case Law? Any Forum? Any Public Issue? Mandatory Attorney Fees/Costs? Additional Burden? Amendment After Grant? Amendment While Pending? Immediate Appeal?
Illinois 735 Ill. Comp. Stat. 110/15 (2011) Y Y Y ? ? Y

735 ILL. COMP. STAT. 110/1 – 110/99 (2007)

Acts in furtherance of constitutional rights to petition, speech, association, and participation in government, except when not aimed at procuring favorable government outcome, are immunized from civil liability. For more information about Illinois’ law, please see SLAPPed in Illinois: The Scope and Applicability of the Citizen Participation Act , by Mark J. Sobczak (available via the Northern Illinois University Law Review).

SB 2722 (Libel Tourism Legislation. See Section b-5 for pertinent language)

This libel tourism legislation allows a court to exercise jurisdiction over an individual, or entity, that has secured a foreign defamation judgment against an Illinois citizen to ascertain whether the judgment should be recognized or to issue declaratory relief.  Governor Rod Blagojevich signed SB 2722 into law on 08/19/08.

Illinois SLAPP Stories:

Featured
Techdirt: Artist Files Copyright Lawsuit Against The NRA For Showing Public Sculpture in Video
Techdirt: Artist Files Copyright Lawsuit Against The NRA For Showing Public Sculpture in Video

The sculptor behind “The Bean,” the famous sculpture in Chicago, filed a copyright lawsuit against the NRA for briefly showing the sculpture in an advertising video.

Illinois Anti-SLAPP Law Doesn’t Apply To Law Firm Blog Posts–Bock & Hatch v. McGuireWoods
Illinois Anti-SLAPP Law Doesn’t Apply To Law Firm Blog Posts–Bock & Hatch v. McGuireWoods

PPP Board Member Eric Goldman writes about a case in which a law firm brought a defamation claim against an attorney for his post on his own law firm’s blog. Though the blogging lawyer tried to use the Illinois anti-SLAPP statute to dismiss the case, the statute did not apply.

A Landlord/Tenant Defamation Case Highlights the Risks of Twitter
A Landlord/Tenant Defamation Case Highlights the Risks of Twitter

An Illinois Circuit Court Judge threw out a defamation suit that had been brought by a realty-management company against a Chicago renter. The suit was based on comments that the renter had posted on Twitter.

A4M SLAPPs Two Professors

In 2004, the American Academy for Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) filed a lawsuit against Dr. Thomas Perls of Boston University and Professor S. Jay Olshansky of University of Illinois at Chicago in an Illinois circuit court. The suit alleged that the two professors had engaged in “defamatory conduct” and interfered with A4M’s business and economic advantage.