What is a SLAPP Suit?
SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.” SLAPP suits typically charge the defendant-activist or organization with defamation or some other form of tortious misconduct, framing the lawsuit as legitimate when the actual goal is to intimidate and silence activists and target the right to free speech.
The CLDC is a national expert in defending activists and their campaigns from the threat of unconstitutional SLAPP suits. We have a large brief bank and legal resources available for lawyers. If you are an attorney representing environmental or social change activists, please contact us.
We are a proud member of the Protect the Protest Coalition. Together we expose corporate bullies that file SLAPP suits to chill public dissent. Learn more about the coalition and its work here.
CLDC Representing Human Rights Attorney Steven Donziger in Chevron’s Retaliatory Lawsuit
CLDC’s Lauren Regan currently represents human rights attorney Steven Donziger, who won a major $9.5 billion judgement on behalf of Indigenous plaintiffs in Ecuador against Chevron in 2011. The oil giant ’s attorneys have been feverishly working to discredit Donziger since the judgement against the company for its environmental crimes in the Amazon. While Chevron’s judicial tampering in Ecuadorian courts that followed is itself alarming, the subsequent retaliatory actions in U.S. courts are perhaps even more disturbing, as they speak to the ability of corporations to control the legal system. Not content with the twisted legal interpretation of federal racketeering laws that allowed the company to pursue Donziger to begin with, Chevron has continued to pervert the legal system to extract revenge. Read more about Steven’s battle against big oil here.