Support for SPEAK FREE Act Keeps Rolling In!
Since H.R. 2304, the SPEAK FREE Act of 2015, was introduced in the House on May 13, 2015, numerous organizations and individuals have voiced their support for this important bill. Additionally, two more co-sponsors have also been added to the bill: Tom Marino, R-PA, and Randy Forbes, R-VA.
Here are just some examples of the support that the introduction has been getting:
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
“EFF applauds the bipartisan effort of the representatives who introduced the SPEAK FREE Act. We hope Congress will quickly act on this important legislation.”
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Yelp review gets couple sued
A flooring company brought a defamation lawsuit against a Colorado couple for negative reviews they left on Yelp. The parties eventually settled the suit, but the dispute cost the defendant $65,000 in legal fees.
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Speak Free Act Introduced - 2015
Federal efforts for “Free Speech Act” were launched in 2015-2016 in collaboration with PPP.
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RCFP: Bill enhancing Florida's anti-SLAPP law heads to governor for approval
From Kimberly Chow at RCFP:
"A Florida bill that would revise the state’s narrow anti-SLAPP law to provide a greater level of protection for speakers against meritless lawsuits has passed both houses of the legislature and now awaits Gov. Rick Scott’s signature.
Florida’s anti-SLAPP law, Fla. Stat. § 768.295, currently only provides for the speedy dismissal of SLAPP suits when such frivolous suits are filed by government entities. In practice, “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPPs, are filed by a wide range of plaintiffs, with far more deleterious effects on speakers than just those suits brought by the government.
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ITIF: Why We Need Federal Legislation To Protect Public Speech Online
The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation just published this report advocating for federal anti-SLAPP legislation:
http://www.itif.org/publications/2015/05/04/why-we-need-federal-legislation-protect-public-speech-online
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is a non-partisan research and educational institute – a think tank – whose mission is to formulate and promote public policies to advance technological innovation and productivity internationally, in Washington, and in the states. Recognizing the vital role of technology in ensuring prosperity, ITIF focuses on innovation, productivity, and digital economy issues.
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DC Appeals Court Says Anti-SLAPP Laws Shouldn't Apply In Federal Courts
From Mike Masnick at Techdirt:
"We’ve discussed for quite some time the importance of anti-SLAPP laws, and how it’s ridiculous that we don’t have a federal anti-SLAPP law. Once again, anti-SLAPP laws are used to toss out bogus lawsuits that were clearly filed for the sake of silencing someone’s speech (SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation”). Right now only some states have them, and there are many variations in the various state laws, with some much better than others. Unfortunately, a new ruling in the DC Circuit appeals court may make state anti-SLAPP laws much less effective. That’s because it says, more or less, that state anti-SLAPP laws only apply to cases in state/local courts, and not those that are in federal court (such as any case between two parties in different states).
More here.
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Nevada May Be About to Lose Its Great Anti-SLAPP Law
Another piece of the proposed changes to Nevada’s anti-SLAPP law, this time from our friends over at Techdirt:
"We’ve mentioned many times the importance of anti-SLAPP laws in protecting people who are being sued solely to try to shut them up. It’s still a travesty that we don’t have a federal anti-SLAPP law but are reliant on various state anti-SLAPP laws. In case you’re not familiar with them, SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.” Anti-SLAPP laws basically allow people who are sued to quickly get lawsuits dismissed when it’s obvious that the entire point of the lawsuit is to silence whoever is being sued, rather than for any legitimate legal purpose. For years, California was seen as having one of the best anti-SLAPP laws, but in recent years both Texas and Nevada upped the ante in anti-SLAPP laws, making them even stronger. Nevada’s had a particularly useful feature: it would award “reasonable costs, attorney’s fees and monetary relief” for defendants who were wrongfully hit with SLAPP suits. Basically, it provided a real deterrent against SLAPP suits.
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Why Are Nevada State Senators Trying to Eviscerate the State's Anti-SLAPP Statute
From our friend Popehat:
"In 2013 Nevada passed the strongest anti-SLAPP statutes in the United States. This statute was muscular. Not only did it cover a wide array of speech, and require substantial proof of the potential validity of a claim, it had frills like a potential $10,000 penalty on top of attorney fees for SLAPPers and a private cause of action so targets of SLAPP suits could sue their tormentors. My friend and colleague Marc Randazza, First Amendment badass, helped frame it, which is why it was so strong. It’s already proven effective in Nevada’s courts. It’s an excellent tool to protect free speech from meritless lawsuits.
So who in the Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee is trying to kill it, and why?"
Read more here.
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Montana paper sued by city over open-records request wins in court
After The Billings Gazette filed a public records request on a potential tip about mishandling of public money at a Montana landfill, the city of Billings, MT, filed a lawsuit against the paper. The editor of the paper characterized the city’s legal response as a SLAPP suit. Though the state does not have an anti-SLAPP law, the newspaper won, and the city agreed to pay about $12,000 in attorneys’ fees.
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Anti-SLAPP bill to go before Minnesota House committee
From Pioneer Press:
"Keith Mueller is pushing to change a state law to protect someone from being sued for calling the cops.
The law’s current language protecting public participation is too vague and needs to include reporting apparent unlawful conduct to police, he argues.
Mueller’s effort stems from his experience: He was sued by a man whose acts were the subject of a report to police.
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Georgia Trial Court Limits the Protection of Georgia's Anti-SLAPP Statute
A Georgia court clarified the protection afforded by the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, noting that a media story not related to a “current governmental investigation” does not fall under the protection of the anti-SLAPP law, even if the story is the basis of a later investigation.
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New York Decision Denying Discovery of Doe Critics Casts Broad Doubts on Libel Suits over Consumer Reviews
From Paul Alan Levy at Public Citizen:
"The Appellate Division in New York has today affirmed the denial of a pre-litigation petition brought by Woodbridge Structured Funding seeking to compel Opinion Corp. to provide identifying information about the authors of two critical consumer reviews on its Pissed Consumer site.
Represented by Ron Coleman, Opinion Corp. invoked the First Amendment’s protection for anonymous speech and theconsensus requirement that would-be plaintiffs be required to present evidence in support of their claims, but the appeals court decided the case instead on the purely state-law ground that the consumer reviews lacked defamatory meaning."
Read more from Paul Levy at Public Citizen here.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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