Anti-SLAPP Laws in Maine

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Maine's current anti-SLAPP statute is the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA), 14 M.R.S. §§ 731-742, part of Title 14's chapter on civil procedure. The legislature enacted it by PL 2023, c. 626 (it became law without the Governor's signature in April 2024), effective January 1, 2025, and it applies only to lawsuits filed on or after that date. A 2025 amendment, PL 2025, c. 403, added new categories of protected activity involving sexual assault, sexual harassment, and discrimination communications. The prior statute, former § 556, had been in place since 1995 and was repealed by the same 2023 act; it covered only a much narrower category of "petitioning" activity aimed at government. If your case was filed before January 1, 2025, the older, narrower law — not this page — governs it.

What speech or conduct is protected

UPEPA covers a lawsuit based on: a communication in a legislative, executive, judicial, administrative, or other governmental proceeding; a communication on an issue under consideration or review by such a proceeding; or your exercise of the right to free speech, free press, assembly, petition, or association on a matter of public concern. Maine added two categories the standard UPEPA text doesn't include elsewhere: written or oral statements made in a Maine Human Rights Act or Title IX discrimination complaint, and — added in 2025 — a communication made without malice about an incident of sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, cyberbullying, or discrimination you experienced, when you had a reasonable basis to file a complaint, whether or not you filed it.

The special motion procedure

The vehicle is called a "special motion for expedited relief to dismiss." You must file it within 60 days of being served with the complaint, or later if you can show good cause. Filing it automatically stays discovery and essentially all other proceedings between you and the plaintiff. That stay continues through any appeal of the ruling on the motion. A court can still allow narrow, specifically-justified discovery during the stay if a party shows the information is genuinely necessary and not otherwise available, and the case can be advanced on the court's docket for priority handling.

Burden of proof

The court must dismiss the claim with prejudice if three things are all true: the moving party shows the Act applies to the claim; the responding party fails to show one of the Act's exemptions applies; and either the responding party fails to establish a prima facie case on every essential element of its own claim, or the moving party separately shows the claim fails to state a cause of action at all, or that there's no real factual dispute and the moving party wins as a matter of law. The court decides all of this using the same kind of record it would use on a summary-judgment motion — pleadings, the motion papers, and admissible evidence, not live testimony.

Attorney's fees

A prevailing moving party is entitled to mandatory fees: the statute says the court "shall award" court costs, attorney's fees, and reasonable litigation expenses related to the motion. That's a strengthening from the old 1995 law, which only let a court "may award" fees at its discretion. The mirror-image protection is narrower: a responding party who wins the motion only gets fees if the court separately finds the motion itself was frivolous or filed solely to delay the case.

Right to appeal

The statute expressly gives a losing moving party the right to appeal a denial — in whole or in part — as a matter of right, without waiting for the rest of the case to finish. This is a deliberate fix: the old 1995 law never addressed appealability at all, forcing the Law Court to recognize an interlocutory-appeal right through case law (most notably Schelling v. Lindell, 2008 ME 59, building on Morse Bros. v. Webster, 2001 ME 70), and that case law's own standard for evaluating the motion itself shifted more than once over the following decade. The new statute puts the appeal right directly in the text instead of leaving it to judicial interpretation.

Exemptions

Three kinds of claims fall outside the Act no matter how speech-related they look: a claim against a government unit or its employee or agent acting in an official capacity; a claim brought BY a government unit or employee, in an official capacity, to enforce a law protecting against an imminent threat to public health or safety; and a claim against someone primarily in the business of selling or leasing goods or services, when the claim arises from a communication tied to that person's own sale or lease. That last, commercial-speech exemption doesn't reach dramatic, literary, musical, political, journalistic, or artistic works, so media and creative content stay protected even when the speaker is in a "selling" business.

What trips people up

The filing date determines which law applies. A lawsuit filed before January 1, 2025 is governed by the old, much narrower 1995 statute limited to petitioning activity — not the broader current law described on this page.

The 2025 sexual-harassment and discrimination categories are new and untested. Because they were added by a 2025 amendment, there's little or no case law yet interpreting exactly how broadly they reach.

Winning the motion on one claim doesn't end the whole case. The statute lets a court dismiss "part of a cause of action," so other claims in the same lawsuit can keep moving forward on their normal schedule even after a partial win.

Common questions

Does this cover a lawsuit over a comment I made at a public hearing opposing a local development project? Yes — that's a communication in or connected to a governmental proceeding, squarely within the statute's first category.

I disclosed sexual harassment I experienced but never filed a formal complaint. Am I still protected if I'm sued for it? Under the 2025 amendment, a communication made without malice about an experienced incident of sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, cyberbullying, or discrimination is covered whether or not a complaint was ever filed, as long as you had a reasonable basis to file one.

If my motion is denied, do I have to wait until the case is fully over to appeal? No. The statute gives you an appeal as of right from a denial, in whole or in part, and that appeal automatically keeps the discovery stay in place while it's pending.

Statutes and sources

• 14 M.R.S. § 733(2)-(3) — "this subchapter applies to a cause of action asserted in a civil action against a person based on the person's: A. Communication in a legislative, executive, judicial, administrative or other governmental proceeding... This subchapter does not apply to a cause of action asserted: A. Against a governmental unit or an employee or agent of a governmental unit acting or purporting to act in an official capacity..." Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec733.html (accessed 2026-08-11).
• 14 M.R.S. § 734 — "Not later than 60 days after a party is served with a complaint... the party may file a special motion for expedited relief to dismiss the cause of action or part of the cause of action." Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec734.html (accessed 2026-08-11).
• 14 M.R.S. § 735(1)-(2) — "on the filing of a motion under section 734: A. All other proceedings between the moving party and responding party, including discovery and a pending hearing or motion, are stayed... A stay under subsection 1 remains in effect until entry of an order ruling on the motion under section 734 and expiration of the time under the Maine Rules of Appellate Procedure for the moving party to appeal the order." Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec735.html (accessed 2026-08-11).
• 14 M.R.S. § 736 — discretionary judicial priority for an action under the subchapter. Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec736.html (accessed 2026-08-11).
• 14 M.R.S. § 737 — pleadings, motion papers, and summary-judgment-type proof record. Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec737.html (accessed 2026-08-11).
• 14 M.R.S. § 738(1) — "the court shall dismiss with prejudice a cause of action, or part of a cause of action, if: A. The moving party establishes under section 733, subsection 2 that this Act applies... and C. Either: (1) The responding party fails to establish a prima facie case as to each essential element of the cause of action; or (2) The moving party establishes that... There is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law..." Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec738.html (accessed 2026-08-11).
• 14 M.R.S. § 739 — "A moving party may appeal as a matter of right from an order denying, in whole or in part, a motion under section 734." Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec739.html (accessed 2026-08-11).
• 14 M.R.S. § 740 — "the court shall award court costs, attorney's fees and reasonable litigation expenses related to the motion: 1. If moving party prevails. To the moving party if the moving party prevails on the motion; or 2. If responding party prevails. To the responding party if the responding party prevails on the motion and the court finds that the motion was frivolous or filed solely with intent to delay the proceeding." Source: https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/14/title14sec740.html (accessed 2026-08-11).
• PL 2023, c. 626, §§ 1, 3, 4, and 7 — repeal of former § 556, January 1, 2025 application and effective-date provisions, and the savings clause for earlier causes of action. Official enacted law: https://legislature.maine.gov/backend/App/services/getDocument.aspx?documentId=107144 (accessed 2026-08-11).