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Who Is ‘Slapping’ Whom?, Juan Chavarria, Javier Flores, Salman Mostafa, Marian Riedy

Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology

A majority of the states and the District of Columbia have enacted “anti-SLAPP” statutes, which set forth a procedure for obtaining an early dismissal of a “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” or a “SLAPP,” as labeled by George W. Pring and Penelope Canan. These types of cases, often alleging defamation or a similar tort, should be discouraged, according to the anti-SLAPP advocates, because the true intent of the plaintiff is to “chill” speech rather than obtain compensation. The paradigm of a SLAPP is a lawsuit filed by a large, well-funded corporation against an “ordinary citizen” who has spoken out in …