The Dallas Bar Association’s Business Litigation section hosted Judge Gena Slaughter, David Coale, and Joshua M. Sandler on January 8, 2019 in a panel discussion called “Anti-SLAPP in 2019: New Topics to Watch for the New Year.”

“The Texas Citizens Participation Act or TCPA is the law the Texas Legislature enacted to give a quick litigation-dismissal function for those who have been sued in SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) suits for exercising their First Amendment rights,” said David Coale, a board certified appellate attorney at Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst.

LPCH partner Joshua M. Sandler added,

“the problem, however, is that the TCPA offers dismissal for so much more than SLAPP cases. Until legislative reforms are enacted, we really should think of this legislation not as the Texas Citizens Participation Act—as the name suggests—but instead as the ‘Texas Communications Dismissal Act,’ as that is what the TCPA really does.”