PPP Board Member Professor Eric Goldman recently posted on his Technology & Marketing Law Blog about the amicus briefs recently filed in an important First Amendment case before the California Supreme Court.
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PPP Board Vice President Jeremy Rosen recently co-authored an article on California's anti-SLAPP law for California Lawyer. The article provides an overview of California's anti-SLAPP law and discusses the evolution of the state’s anti-SLAPP jurisprudence.
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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.
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A new article from Peter Hayes at Bloomberg's Toxic Laws Reporter examines the rise of SLAPPs against environmental organizations and activists.
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The North American Olive Oil Association filed a lawsuit in Georgia state court against television personality Dr. Oz for statements he made regarding the authenticity of olive oil imported into the U.S. “The court has grave concerns that the motivation for the present action falls squarely within the purpose of the anti-SLAPP statute as an attempt to chill speech,” wrote Judge Alford Dempsey, Jr. The judge dismissed the suit.
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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.
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Board Member Jeremy Rosen co-authored an article on Law360 about California's anti-SLAPP law and legal malpractice. They write:
California’s anti-SLAPP law provides “an efficient procedural mechanism to obtain an early and inexpensive dismissal of nonmeritorious claims ‘arising from any act’ of a defendant ‘in furtherance of the person’s right of petition or free speech under the United States or California Constitution in connection with a public issue.’” (Brenton v. Metabolife International Inc. (2004) 116 Cal.App.4th 679, 684.) But this law “is a complex statute” that has “spawned a ‘plethora of appellate litigation.’” (Burke, Anti-SLAPP Litigation (The Rutter Group 2016) § 2.1, p. 2-5.)
Among the issues that have generated the most litigation is whether the anti-SLAPP statute applies to claims alleging legal malpractice or similar breaches of an attorney’s legal or ethical obligations.
A company sued a Harvard researcher, claiming his studies cost the company millions of dollars in revenue. The company first tried to bring the lawsuit in Georgia, but later refiled the suit in federal court in Massachusetts, and there, the jury ruled in the researcher’s favor.
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From Mike Masnick at Techdirt: For many, many years we’ve talked about the importance of strong anti-SLAPP laws. In case you’re new to the subject, SLAPP stands for a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. In short, SLAPP suits are lawsuits where it is fairly obvious that the intent of the lawsuits is to stifle free speech, rather than for a legitimate purpose under the law...
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PPP Policy Director Evan Mascagni published an op-ed in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch advocating for anti-SLAPP legislation in Virginia:
“Perhaps no person in the history of American politics has framed the importance of advocating for individual liberties better than Thomas Paine, one of our nation’s Founding Fathers..
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The North American Olive Oil Association filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta against Dr. Mehmet Oz, claiming that the TV personality made disparaging statements about the quality and purity of its members’ products on his talk show...
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a Portland man's defamation lawsuit against a woman who accused him of sexual assault. The panel ruled that Oregon's anti-SLAPP law applied, and the man did not meet a minimum burden of proof for his allegations.
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The Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled in an unpublished per curiam opinion that Fox News commenters did not defame a Wisconsin firefighter.
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President Obama signed a number of bills into law on Thursday, most notably H.R. 5111, the “Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016”. The legislation, which passed both houses of congress at the start of December, “makes certain clauses of a form contract void if it prohibits, or restricts, an individual from engaging in a review of a seller’s goods, services, or conduct.”
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Georgia’s legislature revised the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, extending coverage to “[a]ny written or oral statement or writing or petition made in a place open to the public or a public forum in connection with an issue of public interest or concern” and “[a]ny . . . conduct in furtherance of the exercise of the constitutional right of petition or free speech in connection with a public issue or an issue of public concern.”
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