Texas Citizens Participation Act: Law History

The Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) was passed in 2011 to protect citizens from retaliatory lawsuits intended to intimidate or silence them on matters of public concern. The TCPA allows people to challenge Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) by filing an Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss. This motion asks the court to promptly end lawsuits that violate the TCPA and protect an individual's First Amendment rights, such as free speech, the right to petition, and the right of association. The TCPA has been considered one of the strongest laws in the nation protecting citizens against SLAPP suits, with several amendments made to it over the years to curtail unexpected applications of the broad language of the act.

The Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) was passed in 2011

The TCPA allows people to challenge SLAPP suits by giving them an Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss. This motion asks the court to promptly end lawsuits that violate the TCPA. The TCPA also helps people pay for a lawyer as, if they win their Anti-SLAPP Motion to Dismiss, the other side may have to pay their attorney's fees. Further protection is offered by the court, which may impose sanctions on the other party to discourage them from filing a SLAPP lawsuit in the future.

The TCPA defines the right of free speech as "a communication made in connection with a matter of public concern". This includes posts online, emails, verbal statements, written statements, and statements made on TV or radio. The Act protects both public and private speech, as long as it is about matters of public concern. The TCPA also protects the right to petition and the right of association. The right to petition is defined as the right to communicate with the government, while the right of association means the right to join with others to "express, promote, pursue, or defend common interests" in relation to government or other public concerns.

In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 2730, making significant changes to the TCPA. The amendments narrowed the scope and application of the TCPA, including the definitions of "exercise of the right of association" and "legal action". The amendments also included a lengthy list of exemptions to the TCPA, such as trade secret misappropriation actions, enforcement of non-disparagement agreements, and common law fraud claims.

The TCPA protects citizens from retaliatory lawsuits

The Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) was passed in 2011 to protect citizens from retaliatory lawsuits seeking to intimidate or silence them on matters of public concern. The TCPA has been one of the strongest laws in the nation protecting citizens' freedom of speech. It allows judges to quickly review whether someone has been sued for speaking out on a matter of public concern. If it’s determined that the case is a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), the lawsuit gets thrown out and the SLAPP victim can recover their legal fees.

The TCPA provides a special procedure for the expedited dismissal of such suits. A two-step process is initiated by the motion of a defendant who believes that the lawsuit responds to the defendant's valid exercise of First Amendment rights. Under the first step, the defendant must show by a "preponderance of evidence" that the plaintiff's claim is based on, related to, or in response to the defendant's exercise of the right of free speech, the right to petition, or the right of association. If the movant is able to demonstrate that the plaintiff's claim implicates one of these rights, the second step shifts the burden to the plaintiff to establish by "clear and specific evidence" a prima facie case for each essential element of the claim in question. If the plaintiff fails to satisfy this burden, the trial court must dismiss the action within the TCPA's expedited time frame.

In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 2730, making significant changes to the TCPA. The amendments sought to curtail unexpected applications of the broad language of the TCPA by narrowing its scope and application. The 2019 amendments narrowed the definitions of the "exercise of the right of association" and a "legal action." The Legislature redefined "matter of public concern", incorporating it into the definition for "exercise of the right of association." The amendments also include a lengthy list of exemptions to the TCPA for areas where the Legislature considered the statute to have been misused.

The TCPA sets deadlines for the filing of a motion to dismiss, hearings on the motion, and the time in which the trial court must rule. The filing of a motion to dismiss suspends discovery unless the trial court orders specific and limited discovery upon a showing of good cause. If the trial court does not rule on the motion to dismiss within thirty days after the hearing, the motion is overruled by operation of law.

The TCPA allows judges to quickly review lawsuits filed to chill speech

The Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) was passed in 2011 to protect citizens from retaliatory lawsuits seeking to intimidate or silence them on matters of public concern. The TCPA allows judges to quickly review lawsuits filed to chill speech. This means that, during the review period, other court proceedings are put on hold. If the judge determines that the case is a SLAPP suit, the lawsuit is thrown out, and the SLAPP victim can recover their legal fees.

The TCPA defines a "legal action" as a "lawsuit, cause of action, petition, complaint, cross-claim, or counterclaim or any other judicial pleading or filing that requests legal, declaratory, or equitable relief". The TCPA also defines "communication" as "the making or submitting of a statement or document in any form or medium, including oral, visual, written, audiovisual, or electronic".

The TCPA's broad language could be applied far beyond what is typically considered a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or SLAPP. In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 2730, making several significant changes to the TCPA. The 2019 amendments sought to curtail unexpected applications of the broad language of the TCPA. The changes narrowed the definitions of the "exercise of the right of association" and a "legal action". The Legislature redefined "matter of public concern", incorporating it into the definition of "exercise of the right of association".

The TCPA has been one of the strongest laws in the nation protecting citizens against lawsuits intended to silence or punish individuals who speak up on public matters. For example, thanks to the TCPA's protections, a Texas court in 2016 dismissed a $1 million lawsuit that a pet-sitting company filed against a Dallas couple for leaving the business a one-star Yelp review.

The TCPA was amended in 2019 to curtail unexpected applications of the broad language of the act

The Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) was passed in 2011 to protect citizens from retaliatory lawsuits intended to intimidate or silence them on matters of public concern. However, the broad language of the act led to its application beyond what is typically considered a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) suit.

In response, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 2730 in 2019, which made significant changes to the TCPA, effective September 1, 2019. The amendments aimed to curtail the unexpected applications of the act's broad language. Specifically, the amendments narrowed the scope and application of the TCPA by redefining key terms such as "matter of public concern," "exercise of the right of association," and "legal action." The amendments also clarified that governmental entities, agencies, or officials cannot file a motion to dismiss under the TCPA.

Additionally, the 2019 amendments provided a list of exemptions to the TCPA, including trade secret misappropriation actions, enforcement of non-disparagement agreements, Texas Family Code cases, applications for protective orders, claims under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, medical peer review cases, eviction suits, attorney disciplinary proceedings, and common law fraud claims.

The changes brought about by the 2019 amendments raised the threshold for invoking the TCPA's dismissal procedures, making it more challenging for parties to seek dismissal under the act. This led to a wave of appellate cases interpreting the amendments and determining the new boundaries of the TCPA's application.

The TCPA is also referred to as the Anti-SLAPP law

The Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) is a law that protects citizens from retaliatory lawsuits intended to intimidate or silence them on matters of public concern. These types of lawsuits are known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP). The TCPA, therefore, serves as an anti-SLAPP law.

SLAPP lawsuits are often filed to stop individuals or groups from speaking out or exercising their First Amendment rights. The person or business suing in a SLAPP suit often claims that the defendant has damaged their reputation or wrongfully interfered with their rights. However, the true goal is to intimidate the defendant into silence. The TCPA provides a way for people to challenge such SLAPP suits.

Under the TCPA, defendants can file a motion to dismiss claims that are based on or arise from their protected rights of association, free speech, or petition. The law broadly defines these rights, including the right of association, which means joining together to express, promote, or defend common interests relating to government or public concerns. The right of free speech is defined as communication made in connection with a matter of public concern, and the right to petition includes a wide range of communications relating to governmental proceedings or issues.

The TCPA allows judges to quickly review whether someone has been sued for speaking out on a matter of public concern. During this time, other court proceedings are put on hold. If the case is determined to be a SLAPP, the lawsuit is dismissed, and the victim can recover their legal fees. The TCPA also provides for sanctions against the party filing the SLAPP lawsuit to discourage them from filing similar suits in the future.

The TCPA was passed in 2011 and has been one of the strongest laws in the nation protecting citizens against SLAPP suits. However, due to its broad language, it could be applied beyond what is typically considered a SLAPP suit. In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed amendments to the TCPA to narrow its scope and application. These amendments removed vague language, redefined certain terms, and specified that government entities or officials cannot file a motion to dismiss under the TCPA.

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