Anti-SLAPP – Has the Cure Become the Disease?

Active

Program Number

3335

Program Date

2023-03-16

CLE Credits

This presentation will provide an overview of the different anti-SLAPP statutes adopted by state legislatures across the country, with an emphasis on California. We will also discuss the proposed federal anti-SLAPP legislation. Generally speaking, anti-SLAPP statutes are intended to deter meritless lawsuits used to silence free speech or to prevent government petitioning activity, but the scope of these statutes varies from state to state.

The presentation will generally address what types of activities are protected by anti-SLAPP statutes, how lawyers use these statutes to protect the interests of their clients, and how the statutes can be – and have been – abused. In some instances, the overbroad application of anti-SLAPP statutes has chilled otherwise legitimate litigation.

In particular, this presentation will analyze recent decisions by the California Supreme Court on the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, which appear to reflect an effort to narrow the protections of the statute. Those California decisions provide a lens through which we will view and consider the broader development of anti-SLAPP jurisprudence across the country.