History of the SLAPP

SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation. SLAPP lawsuits have actually not been explicitly a big part of law until the last 50 or so years, but they have been around for much longer before that. There have been many cases similar to SLAPP though, dating back to the Bill of Rights by William and Mary in England.[1]. The issue with SLAPP lawsuits is that they are so varied, and so it is difficult to assess and find a clear guideline in which the history of SLAPP lawsuits began. There have been cases related to SLAPP suits, including the the “Noerr-Pennington Doctrine [that] exempts individuals from liability due to attempts to petition or otherwise influence the government, as long as the activities are not a sham to cover up a mere attempt to interfere with a competitor’s business.case” [2]. These SLAPP lawsuits have not had a huge recorded history though, but they have become more prevalent in the modern day, which Inderpal will focus on next.

[1] http://www.acluohio.org/slapped/brief-history-of-slapp

[2] ibid.