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SLAPPed shut?

05 September 2025 / Sadie Whittam
Issue: 8129 / Categories: Features , Dispute resolution , Defamation , Libel , Fraud , Media , Human rights
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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

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Mourant—Stephen Alexander

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360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

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NEWS
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
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