Landmark case won using anti-SLAPP law defense; win supports First Amendment
From Wilson Elser at Lexology:
Background
Avvo is an online legal and health professional directory and Q&A forum. It posts attorney and doctor profiles using content gathered from publicly available information including state bar associations, state courts and lawyers’ and law firms’ websites.
Attorneys from Wilson Elser’s Data Security & Cyber Liability practice represented Avvo in this matter. A Florida-based attorney sued Avvo for false advertising and misrepresentation, claiming that his profile was incorrect, specifically that his practice area was inaccurate and that it wrongly indicated that he had been sanctioned by the Florida State Bar, which was factually correct.
Read More
The Case for Anti-SLAPP Legislation
Tracy Coenen recently wrote about her experience dealing with a SLAPP and advocating for states across the country to enact anti-SLAPP legislation.
http://www.sequenceinc.com/fraudfiles/2015/02/the-case-for-anti-slapp-legislation/
In addition to strong state anti-SLAPP laws, federal anti-SLAPP legislation is also needed to protect all Americans across the country.
Read More
D.C. anti-SLAPP statute growing up strong, but what about applicability in federal court and interlocutory appeal?
From Davis Wright Tremaine LLP at Lexology:
"On October 20, 2014, the District of Columbia Circuit held oral argument on the biggest issue under the Court of Appeals’ three-year-old D.C. anti-SLAPP statute: does the special motion to dismiss under the anti-SLAPP statute apply in federal diversity actions?Abbas v. Foreign Policy Group, LLC, 975 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. Sept. 27, 2013), oral argument held, No. 13-7171 (D.C. Cir. Oct. 20, 2014). The panel appeared receptive to holding that – at least in circumstances calling for a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) – the anti-SLAPP statute applies in federal court.
Read More
2014: A Busy Year for Anti-SLAPP Litigation and Legislation
Laura Lee Prather, PPP Board member and partner at Haynes and Boone, LLP, recently co-authored a piece looking back at anti-SLAPP developments across the country in 2014.
Read the post from Law 360 here.
Read More
Ohio should stop lawsuits that target free speech
Benjamin J. Marrison of the Columbus Dispatch recently wrote a column advocating for anti-SLAPP legislation in Ohio:
“One of the things readers tell us they value most about The Dispatch is our commitment to watchdog, investigative reporting.
We have intelligent, savvy readers. Based on feedback over the years, it’s clear you appreciate the difficulty of watchdog journalism because you understand the time commitment it requires to dig deep into a subject and the blowback we get from those who are the subjects of our investigative efforts.
Read More
Techdirt: Here Are The Companies That Want To Charge You $2,500-$100,000 For Negative Reviews
From our friends at Techdirt:
Geek gadget also-ran KlearGear gained internet infamy thanks to the following paragraph tucked away on its “Terms of Sale and Use” page:
In an effort to ensure fair and honest public feedback, and to prevent the publishing of libelous content in any form, your acceptance of this sales contract prohibits you from taking any action that negatively impacts KlearGear.com, its reputation, products, services, management or employees.
Tacked onto this absurd redefining of “fair and honest feedback” was a $3,500 fee. This was levelled at a couple who complained about the non-delivery of products it had paid for. This went to court, and the couple was awarded over $300,000 in a default judgement when KlearGear no-showed.
Read More
Court agrees that Google’s search results qualify as free speech
From MEGAN GEUSS at Ars Technica:
The regulation of Google’s search results has come up from time to time over the past decade, and although the idea has gained some traction in Europe (most recently with “right to be forgotten” laws), courts and regulatory bodies in the US have generally agreed that Google’s search results are considered free speech. That consensus was upheld last Thursday, when a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Google’s right to order its search results as it sees fit.
The owner of a website called CoastNews, S. Louis Martin, argued that Google was unfairly putting CoastNews too far down in search results, while Bing and Yahoo were turning up CoastNews in the number one spot. CoastNews claimed that violated antitrust laws. It also took issue with Google’s refusal to deliver ads to its website after CoastNews posted photographs of a nudist colony in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Read More
Sued for posting a negative online business review? It can happen
Tim Evans, The Indianapolis Star's consumer advocate, writes about “bad reviews and lawsuits.”
Read More
How libel chill is quashing negative online reviews
From Mark Gollom at CBC News:
The aggressive action taken by some businesses against those who post negative reviews online about their product or service is having a chilling effect on some reviewers who fear being sued, observers say.
“It’s a tremendous issue. We’re running into that all over. It’s cheap to threaten and expensive to defend,” said Paul Alan Levy, a lawyer who specializes in free speech issues related to the internet for the Washington, D.C.- based Public Citizen Litigation Group.
Read More
PPP on ABC Nightline Story on Yelp Reviews
PPP Policy Director Evan Mascagni was recently featured on an ABC News Nightlight story discussing lawsuits filed by business owners over bad Yelp reviews.
Watch the story here.
Read More
Congress May Crack Down On Businesses' Efforts To Ban Consumer Reviews
PPP Board Member Eric Goldman, Director of the High Tech Law Institute and law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, had a piece published on Forbes’ website discussing the new federal bill that was introduced in Congress to strengthen consumer free speech rights online.
Read the full article here.
Read More
How Does A Negative Amazon Review Result In Threats Of A Lawsuit?
Writing a product review on Amazon is usually a pretty mundane process: Pick a star rating, leave a few words, hit “submit,” and immediately forget about it. For one man, though, the process just got a whole lot more interesting (in the bad way). Eight months after a Florida man panned a product online, the company’s lawyer delivered a fresh new legal threat to his doorstep — retract the review, or face a libel suit.
Read More
"Yellow Journalist" Loses Defamation Lawsuit, Showing Need for Anti-SLAPP Statutes
An editor at the Ionia, Michigan Sentinel-Standard lost the defamation lawsuit she filed against local citizens who complained about her reporting and called her a "yellow journalist."
Read More
ICA Interprets Hawaii’s anti-SLAPP statute
The Intermediate Court of Appeals of Hawaii affirmed the circuit court’s decision in holding that a lawsuit did not constitute a SLAPP under the state’s anti-SLAPP law.
Read More
