Mississippi: Anti-SLAPP Laws
The short answer
No. Mississippi has no anti-SLAPP statute, so there is no special motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed over protected speech, no automatic discovery stay, and no SLAPP-specific right to attorney's fees. A defendant sued over speech or petitioning activity has to rely on an ordinary motion to dismiss or motion for summary judgment, plus two general tools: Rule 11(b) of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure and the Litigation Accountability Act of 1988, Miss. Code §§ 11-55-1 to -15, both of which let a court sanction a truly frivolous or harassing filing in any kind of civil case. A 2022 bill that would have created a 'Public Speech Protection Act' died in a Senate committee, and no anti-SLAPP bill is currently pending.
| Governing law | None enacted. A 2022 bill, S.B. 2628, would have created a 'Public Speech Protection Act' modeled on anti-SLAPP statutes elsewhere; it died in the Senate Judiciary Committee that session and was never reintroduced. No anti-SLAPP bill is currently pending in the Mississippi Legislature |
|---|---|
| What speech/conduct is protected | N/A — no statutory scope exists. Mississippi courts have not developed a separate constitutional or common-law petitioning-immunity doctrine for SLAPP-type suits either; a defendant sued over speech relies on ordinary Mississippi defamation-law defenses (truth, non-defamatory opinion, and the actual-malice standard for a public-official or public-figure plaintiff) |
| Special motion to strike/dismiss | N/A — no special motion to strike or dismiss exists. A defendant must use an ordinary motion to dismiss or a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment under the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure, with no statutory automatic stay of discovery |
| Burden of proof | N/A — no statutory burden-shifting test exists; the ordinary pleading-sufficiency standard for a motion to dismiss, and the ordinary genuine-issue-of-material-fact standard for summary judgment, apply instead. Under the general Litigation Accountability Act, a party seeking fees must instead show the other side's action, claim, or defense was 'without substantial justification' — defined as frivolous, groundless in fact or law, or vexatious (§ 11-55-3(a)) |
| Attorney's fees | N/A as a SLAPP-specific matter, but two general tools remain available in any civil case: M.R.C.P. 11(b) lets a court order a party or attorney who files a frivolous pleading, motion, or other paper, or one intended to harass or delay, to pay the opposing side's reasonable expenses and attorney's fees; the Litigation Accountability Act, Miss. Code § 11-55-5(1), separately requires a court to award fees and costs against a party or attorney who brings an action or claim without substantial justification or for delay or harassment, weighed against the eleven factors in § 11-55-7 |
| Appeal rights | N/A — no special interlocutory appeal right exists for a ruling on a SLAPP-type motion; ordinary Mississippi rules on final judgments and permissive interlocutory appeals apply instead |
| Exemptions | N/A — there is no statute to carve exemptions from |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
The short answer
Mississippi does not have an anti-SLAPP statute. If you're sued over
speech, petitioning, or association activity here, there is no special
motion to dismiss, no automatic stay of discovery, and no SLAPP-specific
right to recover attorney's fees. Your tools are an ordinary motion to
dismiss or motion for summary judgment, plus two general anti-frivolous-
litigation rules that apply to any civil case, not just speech-based
ones: Rule 11(b) of the state's civil procedure rules and the Litigation
Accountability Act of 1988. A 2022 bill that would have created a
Mississippi anti-SLAPP law died in committee and hasn't been revived.
Requirements one by one
Governing law
There is none currently in force, and none pending. In 2022, a state
senator introduced S.B. 2628, which would have enacted a "Public Speech
Protection Act" to let defendants strike meritless lawsuits filed over
protected speech, petition, or association activity. The bill died in
the Senate Judiciary Committee shortly after it was introduced and has
not been reintroduced in any session since.
What speech or conduct would be protected
Not applicable — no statutory scope exists. Mississippi courts have not
developed a separate constitutional or common-law petitioning-immunity
doctrine to fill the gap either. A defendant sued over speech here relies
on ordinary Mississippi defamation-law defenses: truth, non-defamatory
opinion, and, for a public-official or public-figure plaintiff, the
requirement that the plaintiff prove actual malice.
The special motion that doesn't exist
There is no special motion to strike or dismiss a claim based on
protected speech. A defendant must use an ordinary motion to dismiss or a
motion for summary judgment under the Mississippi Rules of Civil
Procedure, on the ordinary civil-procedure timeline, with no automatic
stay of discovery while the motion is pending.
Burden of proof
Because there is no anti-SLAPP statute, there is no special burden-
shifting test either. Ordinary pleading-sufficiency and summary-judgment
standards apply. The closest general tool, the Litigation Accountability
Act, instead asks whether the other side's action, claim, or defense was
brought "without substantial justification" — a term the Act defines as
frivolous, groundless in fact or in law, or vexatious — which is a
different and generally harder showing than the "probability of
prevailing" or "prima facie case" tests used in states with an actual
anti-SLAPP statute.
Attorney's fees
There's no SLAPP-specific fee-shifting rule, but two general tools exist
in any Mississippi civil case. M.R.C.P. 11(b) lets a court order a party
or attorney who files a frivolous pleading, motion, or other paper, or
one intended to harass or delay, to pay the other side's reasonable
expenses and attorney's fees. Separately, the Litigation Accountability
Act requires a court to award fees and costs against a party or attorney
who brought an action or claim without substantial justification, or for
delay or harassment — weighing eleven listed factors, from how much
effort went into checking the claim's validity before filing to whether
the case was pursued in bad faith. Neither tool is limited to
speech-based cases, and each requires its own motion and showing; neither
is a substitute for an anti-SLAPP special motion.
Right to appeal
There is no special interlocutory appeal right tied to a SLAPP-type
motion. Ordinary Mississippi rules on final judgments and permissive
interlocutory appeals apply to any ruling on a motion to dismiss or for
summary judgment, the same as in any other civil case.
Exemptions
Not applicable — there is no statute to carve exemptions from.
What trips people up
A dead 2022 bill isn't a law. S.B. 2628 got real attention as a
proposed "Public Speech Protection Act," but it never made it out of
committee and has not resurfaced since — don't assume Mississippi has
adopted, or is about to adopt, an anti-SLAPP statute just because a bill
was introduced once.
The Litigation Accountability Act and Rule 11(b) are not anti-SLAPP
substitutes. Both let a court sanction a genuinely frivolous or
harassing filing, but neither is triggered automatically, neither stays
discovery, and neither is tailored to speech, petition, or association
claims specifically — you have to separately show the filing meets the
general frivolousness or bad-faith standard, which is a different (and
often harder) showing than a dedicated anti-SLAPP statute would require.
There's no discovery stay while you fight the underlying claim.
Without a special motion, ordinary discovery proceeds on the normal
timeline even if you believe the lawsuit targets your protected speech —
there's no statutory mechanism to pause the case while a threshold motion
is decided.
Common questions
If I'm sued over a negative online review of a local business, can I
get the case thrown out quickly? Not through any SLAPP-specific
procedure — Mississippi doesn't have one. You'd need to win an ordinary
motion to dismiss or motion for summary judgment on the merits, which
takes longer and comes with no automatic discovery stay or guaranteed fee
award.
Can I recover my attorney's fees if I win? Only if you separately
show the lawsuit was frivolous, groundless, vexatious, or brought to
harass or delay, under Rule 11(b) or the Litigation Accountability Act —
fees aren't awarded automatically just because you prevailed.
Is Mississippi likely to get an anti-SLAPP law soon? There's no way
to know for certain. The only attempt so far, 2022's S.B. 2628, died in
committee, and no replacement bill has been introduced in any session
since.
Statutes and sources
- Miss. R. Civ. P. 11(b) — "If the court decides that a party's
pleading, motion, or other paper is frivolous or intended to harass or
delay, the court may order the party, the party's attorney, or both to
pay to the opposing party or parties reasonable expenses, including
reasonable attorney's fees, incurred by them and their attorneys."
Source: https://courts.ms.gov/archive/rulesofcivilprocedure/Revised%20Mississippi%20Rules%20of%20Civil%20Procedure%20-%208.31.16.pdf
(accessed 2026-07-05). - Miss. Code § 11-55-3 — "'Without substantial justification,' when
used with reference to any action, claim, defense or appeal... means
that it is frivolous, groundless in fact or in law, or vexatious, as
determined by the court." Source:
https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-11/chapter-55/section-11-55-3/
(accessed 2026-07-05). - Miss. Code § 11-55-5 — "[T]he court shall award... reasonable
attorney's fees and costs against any party or attorney if the court...
finds that an attorney or party brought an action, or asserted any
claim or defense, that is without substantial justification, or that
the action... was interposed for delay or harassment..." Source:
https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-11/chapter-55/section-11-55-5/
(accessed 2026-07-05). - Miss. Code § 11-55-7 — "In determining the amount of an award of
costs or attorney's fees, the court shall exercise its sound
discretion... and shall consider the following factors, among others...
(d) Whether or not the action was prosecuted or defended, in whole or
in part, in bad faith or for improper purpose..." Source:
https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/title-11/chapter-55/section-11-55-7/
(accessed 2026-07-05).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.