[Updated May 27, 2009]
Statutes
Nebraska Revised Statutes Sections 25-21,241 through 25-21,246
Nebraska's anti-SLAPP statute, enacted in 1994, was one of the earliest in the United States.
Cases
Sand Livestock Systems, Inc. v. Svoboda (2008) 17 Neb. App. 28; 56 N.W.2d 299
This opinion marks the first appellate court review of the 1994 anti-SLAPP law. The case dates back to 2001, when Furnas County Farms proposed building an operation to hold 44,000 hogs in Hayes County. Furnas sued farmers Char Hamilton and Duane Fortkamp when they filed written comments about Furnas' environmental record with state regulators. Defendants countersued under the little-used 1994 law, and in 2005, a Keith County jury rejected Furnas' claims and ordered it to pay $900,000 in damages plus legal fees. The appellate court overturned the award, saying a judge, not a jury, needed to determine whether the lawsuit had any basis, and remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.
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