In New Jersey in 2006, a hospital sued the local Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) and its president for, among other things, testifying before a State Assembly Health Committee and regulatory agencies about poor patient care at the hospital.
Read MoreIn 2003, former University of Louisiana at Monroe professor John Scott was sued on the basis of comments he made in an anonymous website called the “Truth at ULM” that criticized the university administration. Richard Baxter, the university’s then vice president for external affairs, sued Scott ...
Read MoreIn an unusual SLAPP, Kathleen Seidel, a New Hampshire blogger on vaccine and neurological issues, was served a subpoena commanding her to appear for deposition and to comply with exceedingly broad document production in a personal injury lawsuit she had written about on her blog.
Read MoreIn November of 2008, a Texas developer sued the author of a book about an eminent domain development agreement he had signed. In addition to naming the book’s author and publisher, a book reviewer and the newspaper that published the book review, the suit also named Law Professor Richard Epstein, who wrote a brief review on the book jacket, lauding the book as a “page turner.”
Read MoreIn perhaps the most well-known SLAPP, Oprah Winfrey was sued in 1996 by Texas cattle ranchers after a show called “Dangerous Food,” in which she invited experts on mad cow disease, and said she wouldn’t eat another hamburger.
Read MoreIn 2006, Jay Leno, NBC and others were sued for defamation by a woman claiming defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress based on statements he made in the show. NBC took advantage of California’s anti-SLAPP motion to have the case dismissed, and fees and costs awarded, with the court holding that no reasonable person could understand Leno’s statements to be factual or defamatory.
Read MoreIn 2001, Idaho company Medinex Systems, Inc. sued fourteen John Does who criticized the company on a Yahoo! message board. Medinex alleged defamation, tortious interference with business relationship and wrongful interference with a prospective economic advantage, and then issued a subpoena to Yahoo! in California seeking the identities of their critics without first proving any illegal actions.
Read MoreIn Louisiana in 2009, the Lake Charles American Press was able to invoke the state’s anti-SLAPP law to dismiss a suit brought against it by a jet company, after the newspaper ran a series of reports that the company had sold contaminated fuel to the military.
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