Why are SLAPPs used?
One of the key characteristics of a SLAPP suit is that the lawsuit is not necessarily designed to achieve a favorable verdict. Instead, it is designed to intimidate the target in order to discourage them and others from speaking out on an issue of public importance.
In addition to engendering fear and intimidation, the party initiating the suit (SLAPPOR) often seeks to bleed the other party (SLAPPEE) of resources and produce a chilling effect, not only on the SLAPPEE’s expression of First Amendment rights but also on those who consider speaking out on the issue in the future.
In essence, SLAPPs are designed to discourage public discussion by using our legal system to choke the exercise of free speech.
An Example SLAPP
One SLAPP suit which may help shed light on how these suits work is
Protect Our Mountain Environment, Inc. v. District Court of County of Jefferson.4
Protect Our Mountain Environment (“POME”) was a local environmental group located in Evergreen, Colorado that sued to stop the rezoning of a 507-acre piece of land to allow real estate development.
POME lost its suit, appealed, and lost again. As a result, the developer sued POME, several of its leaders and its attorneys for abuse of process and civil conspiracy. The developer blamed POME for an increase in its financing and development costs and demanded
over $40 million in damages .
The case took over four years to resolve, and although the court ruled in favor of the defendants and the development was never built, the developer succeeded in suppressing the opposition movement. Many of POME’s leaders withdrew from public life. Some even moved out of town.
As commentators have observed, “a decade later, environmental campaigns … can be withered by the phrase: ‘Remember POME.’”