“SLAPP” back, with the court’s permission of course.

Most lawsuits are filed against people who did something wrong. Some lawsuits, however, are filed to stop people from speaking out on a subject important to the public. When these types of lawsuits are filed, they are known as "strategic lawsuits against public participation", i.e. lawsuits filed to keep people quiet. "A 'SLAPP' suit is 'a meritless suit filed primarily to chill the defendant's exercise of First Amendment rights". (See Wilcox v. Superior Court (1994) 27 Cal.App.4th 809, 815, fn. 2.) If you have been sued and believe you are sued to keep you from speaking out on behalf of the public, the law can be on your side. One option a defendant has when sued is responding to the lawsuit with a Special Motion to Strike, or what some refer to as an "Anti-Slapp" Motion. In California, the code section often referred/cited to is CCP Section 425.16. Although you were sued and alleged to have done something wrong, your "Anti-Slapp" motion requests that the court dismiss the lawsuit filed against you because what you said or did and the reasons why you were sued are protected rights under the law. If you are right, and the court agrees, then the court is required to dismiss the lawsuit, or part of it, and even award you your attorneys' fees. If you are wrong, the lawsuit goes forward, and the court has discretion on awarding attorneys' fees to the other side.

Before you send that email from work...

Before you click on send and let that email go out into the internet, be advised that a recent California Appeals Court has ruled that emails sent from work to an attorney are not privileged, and can be used in court. In Holmes v. Petrovich Development, an employee used his work email to send emails to his attorney. The employee sued his employer. The employer wanted to use the employee's emails to his attorney as evidence in the lawsuit. The employee fought and tried to keep the emails out of court, but the Appeals Court ruled that the email was not privileged and can be used as evidence because the email was sent at work using work provided email. So, before you click on send, make sure you are sending it from a private email address. Otherwise, what you send to your attorney may not be privileged and confidential and end up being used in court.

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/C059133.PDF

Holmes v. Petrovich Development