On April 15, 2024, NWLC, DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Network for Victim Recovery of DC led an amicus brief on behalf of 13 individual and organizational survivor advocates to the DC Court of Appeals in Banks v. Hoffman urging the Court to uphold DC’s anti-SLAPP statute. 

A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) is a meritless lawsuit filed to intimidate someone from speaking out against misconduct or to retaliate against them for having spoken out. Under DC’s anti-SLAPP law, people who are targeted by SLAPPs can ask the court to: (1) pause discovery, (2) dismiss the case, and (3) order the other side to pay their litigation costs. In 2023, the DC Court of Appeals struck down a portion of DC’s anti-SLAPP law and then later decided to re-hear the case, restoring the anti-SLAPP law for the time being.  

NWLC, DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Network for Victim Recovery of DC led an amicus brief on behalf of 13 individual and organizational survivor advocates in DC explaining what’s at stake for survivors of sex harassment and other gender-based violence. We note that gender-based violence is widely prevalent yet vastly underreported, and that survivors commonly face retaliation when they come forward. Abusers are increasingly using defamation suits and other SLAPPs to silence their victims, to retaliate against them for speaking out, and to further the cycle of abuse. DC’s anti-SLAPP law has been essential in protecting DC survivors’ ability to freely report and advocate against gender-based violence. Our brief therefore urges the Court of Appeals to keep the anti-SLAPP law intact and to affirm the lower court’s order dismissing Banks v. Hoffman as a SLAPP. 

Read our blog post to learn more.