More than half of the states in America have anti-SLAPP statutes, including Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Texas, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. Anti-SLAPP laws are designed to provide for early dismissal of meritless lawsuits filed against people who are exercising protected First Amendment rights.
Why should this concern corporations? Some of the laws are so broadly worded that courts have construed them to apply to fiduciary duty, trade secret theft and related claims arising uniquely in the employment context. We look at Texas as a case study of what can go wrong, its impact on corporate employment decisions, and how anti-SLAPP statutes can avoid such pitfalls.