You be the Judge

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Online Venters Rejoice: Federal Anti-SLAPP Law Taking Shape

That airline lose your luggage (again)? A rental-truck outfit overcharge you unjustifiably? That bedbug exterminator spray everywhere except where the bedbugs roam?

In a fit of pique, you might be inclined to take your complaints online, to create an “Acme BugsAway Stinks!” group on Facebook or maybe even film your own Howard Beale-like tirade and put it up on YouTube.

If you do, know that a complaint from the object of your ire might soon be on its way. And maybe a lawsuit.

The NYT on Tuesday has a story on the trend of companies fighting back against consumers who vent online, mostly in the form of defamation suits.

According to the story, those who vent online may often be protected by the First Amendment. But the Constitution doesn’t always carry the day — the threat of a suit is often enough to get angry consumers to pull down their remarks.

Many states have what are called anti-SLAPP laws — laws that ban these types of suits. (SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.) Congress is thinking about passing its own.

The bill, in the House Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, would, according to the NYT, enable a defendant who believes he is being sued for speaking out or petitioning on a public matter to seek to have the suit dismissed.

Under the proposed law, if a case is dismissed for being a SLAPP suit, the plaintiff would have to pay the other side’s legal fees.

“Just as petition and free speech rights are so important that they require specific constitutional protections, they are also important enough to justify uniform national protections against Slapps,” said Mark Goldowitz, director of the California Anti-Slapp Project, which helped draft the bill.

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/06/01/online-venters-rejoice-federal-anti-slapp-law-taking-shape/?KEYWORDS=online+venters+rejoice