Cahill Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of the National Women’s Law Center and Other Survivor Advocates
Date: 04/15/24
On April 15, partner Landis Best and associates Brit Foerter and Lisa Cole filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Court of Appeals in an en banc proceeding on behalf of the National Women’s Law Center, the D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence, DV Leap – A Project of Network for Victim Recovery of D.C., and ten other individual and organizational survivor advocates in Banks v. Hoffman, 301 A.3d 685 (D.C. 2023), reh'g en banc granted, opinion vacated, 308 A.3d 201 (D.C. 2024). This case involves D.C.’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law, and whether the provision of the law that limited discovery during an anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss violated D.C.’s Home Rule Act. Writing in support of Defendants/Appellees, the amicus brief focused on the importance of anti-SLAPP statutes – with their limitations on discovery and potential for attorney’s fees awards – for survivors of gender-based violence, explaining that survivors are often sued by their abusers for defamation (and other torts) as retaliation after they speak out, or are threatened with a lawsuit to prevent them from speaking out.