"If you’ve been sued, how do you know if you’ve been SLAPPed?

SLAPPs all arise out of expressive activity which is directed to public concerns and protected by the First Amendment. Often, SLAPPs are “camouflaged” as ordinary civil lawsuits; among the most often used legal theories are the following:

Defamation. Broadly defined, this is an alleged intentional false communication, which is either published in a written form (libel) or publicly spoken (slander), that injures one’s reputation.

Malicious Prosecution or Abuse of Process. A “malicious prosecution” is a criminal or civil lawsuit which is begun with knowledge that the case lacks merit, and which is brought for a reason (such as, to harass or annoy) other than to seek a judicial determination of the claim. The use of the legal process to intimidate or to punish the person against whom the suit is brought is generally referred to as “abuse of process.”

Invasion of Privacy. This refers to the unlawful use or exploitation of one’s personality, the publicizing of one’s private affairs with which the public has no legitimate concern, or the wrongful intrusion into one’s private activities.

Conspiracy. A conspiracy is an alleged agreement between two or more persons to commit an illegal, unlawful, or wrongful act.

Interference With Contract or Economic Advantage. This is based on the alleged commission of an act with the intent to interfere with or cause a breach of a contract between two people, or hinder a business relationship which exists between those persons.

Intentional or Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress. This is based on an alleged commission of some outrageous act with the intent and knowledge that the act will result in severe mental or emotional anguish of another.

Nuisance. This includes everything that endangers, or may endanger, life or health, gives offense to the senses, violates the laws of decency, or obstructs, or may obstruct, the use and enjoyment of property.

Injunction. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order or an injunction against First Amendment activity.
This list is not exhaustive. The specific legal theory upon which a suit is based does not necessarily determine whether a particular case is a SLAPP, although malicious prosecution and abuse of process claims will generally be subject to the anti-SLAPP law. The other claims listed above are not necessarily SLAPPs. If the lawsuit arises from constitutionally protected speech or petition activity, then the suit is a SLAPP.

It is important to recognize that SLAPP filers are not all malicious, any more than SLAPP targets are all well intentioned. The parties’ subjective motives – bad faith, intent, frivolousness, intimidation, or even rightness or wrongness on the merits – are irrelevant to whether the anti-SLAPP law applies. The critical issue is whether the claim arises from protected expressive activity."

Source of post
http://www.casp.net/sued-for-freedom-of-speech-california/is-my-defamation-libel-slander-internet-speech-lawsuit-a-slapp/