Sadie Whittam considers the growing use of SLAPPs & the abuse of the litigation process
- Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are abusive lawsuits, aimed at intimidating opponents both financially and psychologically to prevent them from speaking out about matters of public interest.
- England and Wales is a particularly popular forum for SLAPP actions due to claimant-friendly defamation laws, procedural complexities and the ‘loser pays’ principle.
- New anti-SLAPP provisions introduced in June 2025 do not go far enough, and further reform is needed to protect public interest speech.
What do four Russian oligarchs, a fossil fuel giant and a UK cosmetic surgery company have in common? They have all been labelled perpetrators of SLAPPs—also known as strategic lawsuits against public participation. Although there is no universally accepted definition of a SLAPP, these cases are essentially abusive lawsuits, where the main purpose is to intimidate one’s opponent both financially and psychologically to cow them into submission and prevent public criticism.
In a SLAPP, the litigation process itself is the weapon, and targets often include journalists, activists, whistleblowers, NGOs
