Colorado Lawyer: In 2019, Colorado became the 30th state in the nation (including the District of Columbia)1 to adopt an “anti-SLAPP” statute—a law that provides an expedited procedural mechanism to challenge the adequacy of certain tort claims premised on the defendant’s exercise of constitutionally protected rights of free speech or petitioning the government. The stated goal of such statutes is to prevent the mere pendency of such litigation from “chilling” the exercise of those fundamental rights.

Now that Colorado’s anti-SLAPP statute has been in place for more than half a decade, several cases have worked their way up to our state’s court of appeals and supreme court, requiring them to interpret and enforce it. This article explains the origins of the anti-SLAPP statute and surveys the emerging body of published precedents interpreting its terms.

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