Protecting Public Expression

Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) laws are of recent vintage and are intended to protect important public speech from costly, nonmeritorious lawsuits used to silence such speech. Thirty-three states and Washington, D.C., have anti-SLAPP laws.  Largely intended for use by journalists, the anti-SLAPP process has been employed by a much broader group of defendants. This article discusses Washington state’s initial, constitutionally flawed effort to protect public speech, its enactment in 2021 of the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA), process under the UPEPA, and several recent Washington appellate court decisions applying the UPEPA. READ MORE