How do I make an anti SLAPP motion and will it help?

[freebirdsf61]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA. For many months now a woman I've done activism work with who got power trippy was posting false info to purposefully mislead on a YaHoo group website. Many of her posts are personal untrue attacks on me and others that include her unqualified medical diagnoses and she even reveals on the paperwork that I'm a medical marijuana patient. I've continuously counterposted corrections that she demands the moderator remove but he refuses to. She actually posts that she'd file suit if I wasn't silenced.
Wrong address had them serve wrong house but hearing of it I went to sheriff and court to get all but 2 pages (of evidence?) that they say were never filed. She didn't sign either and consistently spelled her own name wrong on the forms. She's suing other individuals also.
With no evidence to respond to except her claim that I slandered and stalked her by posting untrue statements and accusations about her, I'm not sure how to proceed.
I'd like to make a motion for an anti SLAPP but do not know how and have no lawyer.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[Tallrat]

California Anti-SLAPP Project | Fighting SLAPPs, Protecting the First Amendment

 

[freebirdsf61]

They've been looking at the case since Tuesday.

California Anti-SLAPP Project | Fighting SLAPPs, Protecting the First Amendment

I referred them to the SFGOV.org website to view what was there of it and they had me pick the papers up from the sheriff. They noticed that 2 pages were missing and had me go back to the sheriff then to courthouse where all agreed the 2 missing pages (evidence?) were never filed. Yesterday late in the day they contacted me to say they couldn't represent me but didn't think I'd necessarily lose but without the plaintiff including any examples of what she was talking about they couldn't say for sure what exact postings she was referring to so although they saw on line all that she could mean, they couldn't spare the help.

 

[quincy]

Could you clarify your post a little bit, please? I am confused.

Were you served with a complaint? Are you being sued for what you posted on the Yahoo website, in response to the attacks against you? What pages are missing from what? And who said they couldn't represent you?

Thanks.

 

[freebirdsf61]

Clarification.

Could you clarify your post a little bit, please? I am confused.

Were you served with a complaint? Are you being sued for what you posted on the Yahoo website, in response to the attacks against you? What pages are missing from what? And who said they couldn't represent you?

Thanks.

Complaint was served to the wrong address so I went and got it from Sheriff's Dept. I'd been alerted to the complaint by a friend.

In her request for Orders to Stop Harassment, box 20 has written in that there should be 2 pages attached. I checked and the court people assured me in person that the 2 pages were not filed. I assume it would be 2 pages of samples of the postings on the YaHoo site she claims in her request are false statements and accusations about her and "threatening blogs"

I posted against some personal attacks from her on the site about me and others, purposeful misinformation about caucus mtgs of the SF Harvey Milk Democratic Club where we're both members, and against her public postings of Medical Diagnoses of individuals (myself included) that she's not qualified or authorized to make.

I sent all I had into the California Anti SLAPP Project (as Tallrat also advised in the 1st response thread) and they were assertively very attentive evaluating case but said yesterday they could not represent me because the plaintiff did not include any specific internet postings she was complaining about. The CASP people agree that the missing 2 pages were probably this evidence.

Also note that she consistently misspelled her name on all the paperwork.

 

[quincy]

An anti-SLAPP suit depends on the lawsuit arising out of protected speech or petition activity. Without the website postings to view, showing that the speech in question involves an issue of public interest, an anti-SLAPP action is not possible. Statements made on the character of a person not in the public eye, for instance, would not be covered by the anti-SLAPP statute, whereas comments made on the SF Harvey Milk Democratic Club could be covered.

This is why the CASP people cannot assist you at this point. They need evidence that the complaint against you falls within the limits of the statute. A true SLAPP is designed to silence critics through intimidation and harassment by way of filing unnecessary and unwarranted lawsuits against them.

You really should consult with an attorney in your area for assistance - an attorney with a free legal aid clinic could help. The website postings need a thorough review to see what sort of action needs to be taken.

Because you have a limited amount of time in which to respond to the complaint, and because the complaint is missing information needed for an adequate response (or to know what kind of response is possible), you could potentially file a motion with the court for a more definite statement, pointing out the defects in the complaint and what is needed in order for you to file a response. With more information (the two pages of evidence apparently missing from the complaint), this would allow the CASP people to see if an anti-SLAPP action is one that can be pursued.

If the Plaintiff does not respond to this motion, the court can strike or dismiss the complaint.

Or you could respond to the complaint with a motion to dismiss.

In addition, there is a possibility here of filing a suit against the activist for invasion of privacy (publication of medical marijuana use could fall within the California privacy statute), or defamation.

And, you could also potentially get a court order to have the website remove the content of the material posted on the site, if it can be shown it violates your privacy or defames you. A website will not remove content without a court order to do so, as it can violate the free speech rights of the posters.

There are avenues to explore here, but you need the assistance of an attorney to guide you. There is not much time to play around with your options, as the complaint needs to be answered.

 

[freebirdsf61]

Thank you so much.

You have been extremely helpful. The plaintiff has been self aggrandizing herself into "spokesperson" for the Medical Marijuana Movement. She's manipulated her way into a role of local prominence, speaking for, she claims, the entire San Francisco Bay area Cannabis Community. Unfortunately she actually only speaks for a tiny fraction of us and this has become rapidly apparent recently after a slow climb over more and more destroyed lives. But still, she's interviewed on the subject in local papers, online, and on local radio and TV. So I do believe she would qualify as a person in the public eye and has monopolized the media on this topic of definite public interest here. As she's gained power claiming to be devoted to serving the needy in our community by offering up free bags of medical marijuana as the rest of us realize more and more that only a select group of about 15 or 20 receive what she calls "compassion" and only if they do her bidding....and they do. She got very political a few years back, rewarding or "bribing" her people with free pot to work on various local political campaigns and cutting off even truly needy beaten down people who rely on her for the main or only source of Pot. As the baton to fight her has been handed off to me lately, I'm seeing that she's silenced a long list of her critics who've crossed her, frequently using the media and courts now to bully people into silence.
It's all very difficult to fathom and I've only touched on a fraction of her corruption here. But she does depend on a harder and harder to maintain public image of the selfless charitable Saviour to the masses using tactics like this lawsuit against me to crush and silence both her honest critics and others who earn glory she claims she deserves.
Thanks again. You have been a huge help.

 

[quincy]

This activist sounds charming.

Have an attorney review the web postings. If the activist's suit against you centers entirely on statements made by you that she considers slanderous or harassing, then an anti-SLAPP may not be possible. It really depends on the content of the postings and the context of your statements as to what your next step should be and what legal actions are available for you to take.

If judged to be a public figure, or a limited public figure, for the purposes of her suit, she would need to demonstrate that any defamatory comments made about her were done with actual malice. In the context of a heated debate over an issue of public interest, this is not a proof that would be easy for her to make. The complaint against you would have a good chance of being dismissed.

But, again, it would take a review of all of the material posted and all of the facts involved to direct you to the proper actions to take with this suit. I wish you a lot of good luck.