Mississippi
This guide was authored by Zivile Raskauskaite, Skye Lucas, and Sara George, working with Professor Jared Schroeder at the Missouri School of Journalism. Grant support for this project was provided by the Society to Protect Journalists and the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Anti-SLAPP protection: Mississippi does not have an anti-SLAPP law.
Helpful cases: It appears that no Mississippi courts have ever explicitly referred to a SLAPP in a decision. Cases concerning frivolous, malicious, or nuisance defamation lawsuits, particularly regarding news organizations, are equally rare. That said, Mississippi does have laws that provide an avenue to seek monetary sanctions for the filing frivolous and harassing lawsuits generally: Rule 11(b) of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure and the Mississippi Litigation Accountability Act, Miss. Code § 11-55-1 et seq.
Mississippi’s Rule 11(b) allows a court to award reasonable attorney’s fees if the opposing party filed “a motion or pleading which, in the opinion of the court, is frivolous or is filed for the purpose of harassment or delay.” M.R.C.P. 11(b). Mississippi’s Litigation Accountability Act similarly allows for imposition of monetary sanctions if “the court, upon the motion of any party or on its own motion, finds that an attorney or party brought an action, or asserted any claim or defense, that is without substantial justification, or that the action, or any claim or defense asserted, was interposed for delay or harassment, or if it finds that an attorney or party unnecessarily expanded the proceedings by other improper conduct.” Miss. Code § 11-55-5. Section 11-55-7 of the Act lists 11 factors that courts must consider when deciding whether to award fees.
The cases below serve as examples of defamation defendants seeking fees based on these Mississippi laws, sometimes successfully and sometimes not.
- Herbert v. Herbert, 374 So. 3d 562 (Miss. Ct. App.), reh’g denied (Aug. 29, 2023), cert. dismissed, 375 So. 3d 671 (Miss. 2023): In dismissing a lawsuit filed by a husband against his estranged wife alleging defamation and five other causes of action, a Mississippi appeals courtfound that “a substantial portion of this lawsuit was clearly frivolous,” and “[a]ll claims failed to plead facts that would survive legal scrutiny,” such that the defendant was entitled to attorney’s fees pursuant to Rule 11(b) and the Mississippi Litigation Accountability Act. Id. at 580.
- Neilson v. Dawson, 155 So. 3d 920 (Miss. Ct. App. 2014): A former FBI agent sued an author and book publisher for defamation regarding claims made in a new book. A trial court granted summary judgement in favor of the author and publisher, which the Mississippi Court of Appeals here affirmed. But the appellate court also affirmed the trial court’s denial of the defendant’s request for monetary sanctions under Rule 11(b), finding no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s conclusion that the complaint was not “frivolous or filed for the purpose of harassment.” Id. at 924.
- Legislative activity: A bill, proposed by a Mississippi state senator in 2022, sought to implement an anti-SLAPP law in Mississippi (“the Public Speech Protection Act”), proposing to eliminate malicious or frivolous lawsuits that limited speech, petition, or association. It died in the state senate’s Judiciary Committee shortly after its proposal.