Anti-SLAPP laws

A New York judge has dismissed a former congressman’s defamation suit against a person who criticized him anonymously on a newspaper website, The Journal News in New York's Lower Hudson Valley reported. The court dismissed the libel claim under an anti-SLAPP statute, which protects speakers from "strategic lawsuits against public participation."

A California bill that will relieve losing plaintiffs in Freedom of Information Act lawsuits of having to pay attorney's fees passed the state's legislature last month. It is now awaiting a signature from the governor.

A Massachusetts court last week dismissed a defamation lawsuit against the Wareham Observer using the state’s anti-SLAPP statute.

It appears to be the first case in Massachusetts in which a newspaper has successfully pursued an anti-SLAPP motion against a libel plaintiff who opposed it, said the newspaper's attorney, Michael Pezza.

A defamation lawsuit brought by a Louisiana jet fuel supplier against a local newspaper was thrown out by a federal appellate court this week.

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that an exemption to the state's anti-SLAPP statute that allows plaintiffs to avoid dismissal must be interpreted narrowly.

A libel lawsuit against the Lake County Record-Bee's parent company, publisher and managing editor and a former reporter was dismissed Friday, the newspaper reported.

The defamation suit filed against an American Journalism Review writer over her coverage of a scandal at the Santa Barbara News-Press two years ago has been dismissed. 

The News-Press and its corporate owner, Ampersand Publishing, sued writer and Chapman University professor Susan Paterno for defamation after she wrote an article critiquing the newspaper’s operations.  

A libel suit against an Indiana TV station has been revived after a docket mishap surfaced, leading the judge to decide he'd acted too quickly to dismiss the case.

The plaintiff, CanaRX Services, a Canadian pharmacy-benefits company, had earlier applied for an extended deadline to respond to WISH-TV's motion to dismiss under the state's anti-SLAPP statute. But the deadline extension got lost in the docketing system, Indiana Southern District Judge Larry McKinney wrote in his order vacating the dismissal. 

Late last week, a California state appeals court denied the discovery motion of Ampersand Press, the corporate owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press, clearing the way for a trial court to dismiss its libel claim against American Journalism Review writer Susan Paterno. 

 A federal judge has dismissed a defamation suit filed against an Indianapolis TV station for an in-depth report on Internet pharmacies, including a Canadian pharmacy-benefits company, CanaRX Services, Inc., which filed the action.