The Portland Head Lighthouse in Maine
Effective January 1, 2025, Maine is subject to the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, generally known as UPEPA. You can read a duplicate of this law Here. The UPEPA will replace Maine’s previous anti-SLAPP law, which was limited to the suitable to petition and didn’t provide any procedural details. UPEPA will significantly expand free speech protections in Maine and likewise provide the good advantage of consistent interpretation with the opposite UPEPA states.
For those unfamiliar with anti-SLAPP laws comparable to UPEPA, these laws are designed to offer a one that has been sued for exercising their right to free speech the chance to hunt early dismissal of the lawsuit. The aim is to stop such an individual from having to suffer the prices, expenses and psychological distress of an abusive lawsuit that can ultimately be dismissed in court anyway. Another option to consider anti-SLAPP laws is that they move the summary judgment motion to the start of the case, reasonably than the top of the evidentiary hearing, where such motions are typically made. For this reason, anti-SLAPP motions (including UPEPA motions) are sometimes considered a “motion to dismiss on steroids.”
When passing uniform laws, state legislatures often tinker with the proposed uniform law to handle state-specific concerns. This tinkering ends in something generally known as Inconsistent provisions. A fast have a look at the statute shows that Maine has made little such manipulation, merely adding the next provision to expand the scope of the Maine UPEPA’s protections:
“Written or oral statement in reference to a discrimination grievance under the Maine Human Rights Act or any written or oral statement in reference to a grievance under Title 20-A, Chapter 445 or the so-called Title IX provisions of the Federal Education Amendments of 1972, Public Law 92-318.
This speech was probably protected under the UPEPA’s general freedom of expression, nevertheless it doesn’t harm the act. Otherwise, it doesn’t appear (again at first glance) that Maine has made every other significant changes to the text of the UPEPA. This makes Maine’s implementation of UPEPA perhaps the cleanest of all implementations to this point.
The 2024 legislative 12 months could prove to be a crucial 12 months for the passage of UPEPA, as roughly ten more states are considering this uniform law. In addition to Maine, states which have already adopted UPEPA include Hawaii, Kentucky, New Jersey, Utah and Washington. Oregon also amended its own organic anti-SLAPP law to closely align with UPEPA. California, Texas, and New York, in addition to several other states, have their very own anti-SLAPP laws that predate UPEPA but function very similarly, although without the good thing about uniform interpretation.
Otherwise, UPEPA does precisely the job it was originally intended to do, namely to offer an out-of-the-box, state-of-the-art anti-SLAPP law for those states that don’t have already got such a law and to modernize the older or weaker anti-SLAPP laws. Laws of other states like Maine. More such states will follow!
