Fighting SLAPPs, Protecting the First Amendment
Posts that are for the edification of the reading public
In any body of case law as large as that applying California’s anti-SLAPP statute (approximately 400 published opinions so far and counting), you will find some outliers and oddities. One case, however, stands out above all the rest. That decision, … Read the rest
Lawyers are frequently subject to malicious prosecution suits and other claims arising from their work on behalf of clients, some meritorious, some not. One of the benefits of the California anti-SLAPP law (and similar laws in other states) is that … Read the rest
As I have noted here before, before filing a lawsuit, a SLAPP filer will frequently first send you a threat letter. This letter will state that if you do not stop exercising your First Amendment free speech and/or petition … Read the rest
If you aren’t a lawyer, you may have figured out that the lawsuit filed against you is a SLAPP, but you probably don’t know how a SLAPP suit works and what the procedural stages of the lawsuit are. This post … Read the rest
Recently, the California anti-SLAPP statute has come under criticism from some quarters — including, most notably, a panel of justices at the First District Court of Appeal — for its potential for abuse by cagey or unscrupulous defendants. (See the … Read the rest
Finding out that someone has issued a subpoena to your internet service provider seeking information about you is scary. But do not despair! This post will give you some information about what this means and what you can do when … Read the rest
The relationship between the First Amendment’s protections for free speech and the common law’s tort remedies for victims of defamatory or otherwise damaging statements has always been a complex one. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan pointed out before … Read the rest
Practicing law and litigating cases on a day-to-day basis, you often lose sight of big-picture, foundational legal questions. In First Amendment law, however, it is important never to stray too far from these bigger questions, lest they come back to … Read the rest