Pennsylvania: Anti-SLAPP Laws

The short answer

Pennsylvania enacted a broad anti-SLAPP law in 2024, the Uniform Public
Expression Protection Act (UPEPA), codified at 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. §§ 8320.1
and 8340.11 through 8340.18. Unusually, the law is only partly turned on
right now. Its immunity, fee-shifting, and immediate-appeal provisions took
effect the day it was signed. But the law's dedicated special motion
procedure -- the piece that gives a defendant a fast, 60-day-deadline motion
with an automatic stay of the whole case -- was written to activate only
once the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopts a matching rule of civil
procedure, something the Pennsylvania Constitution reserves to the Court
alone. That rule was still an open proposal for public comment in early
2026.

Requirements one by one

Governing law

Act 72 of 2024 added a new stand-alone cause of action (§ 8320.1) and a new
subchapter of Title 42 (§§ 8340.11-8340.18) called the Uniform Public
Expression Protection Act. It replaced Pennsylvania's old, much narrower
anti-SLAPP law, but only for its own broader scope: the prior law, which
protects only speech about environmental law or regulation (27 Pa. Cons.
Stat. §§ 7707, 8301-8305), was expressly left in place and unaffected.

What speech or conduct is protected

"Protected public expression" covers a communication in, or on an issue
under consideration or review in, a legislative, executive, judicial, or
administrative proceeding, and separately covers the exercise, on a matter
of public concern, of the rights of free speech, free press, assembly,
petition, or association guaranteed by the First Amendment or by Article I,
§§ 7 or 20 of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The special motion -- and why it isn't fully running yet

Section 8340.16 creates a special motion for dismissal or judgment based on
protected public expression immunity, due within 60 days of being served
with the pleading, with all other proceedings (including discovery)
automatically stayed once it's filed. But the act that created this
motion split its own effective date: the immunity, definitions, fee, and
appeal provisions took effect immediately in 2024, while the addition of
§ 8340.16 itself "shall take effect on the effective date specified" in a
notice that only issues after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court promulgates a
procedural rule with substantially the same content (or otherwise confirms
the statute isn't suspended under its own rulemaking power). As of early
2026, the Court's Civil Procedural Rules Committee had only published a
proposed new rule, Pa.R.Civ.P. 1034.1, for public comment -- it had not yet
been adopted. Section 8340.16(c) does say that filing this special motion
"does not preclude a party from asserting protected public expression
immunity through other pleadings and motions under the Pennsylvania Rules
of Civil Procedure" -- meaning the underlying immunity can be raised right
now through an ordinary preliminary objection (demurrer) or motion for
summary judgment, just not through the dedicated fast-track vehicle the
statute describes.

Burden of proof

A person is immune from liability for a claim based on protected public
expression if the party bringing the claim fails to state a cause of
action, fails to establish a prima facie case on each essential element of
that cause of action, or cannot show a genuine issue of material fact that
would defeat judgment as a matter of law for the defendant. This tracks
Pennsylvania's existing demurrer and summary-judgment standards rather than
creating a separate, SLAPP-specific evidentiary test.

Attorney's fees

A party who establishes immunity is entitled to a mandatory award of court
costs, attorney's fees, and litigation expenses, assessed jointly and
severally against every party who asserted the claim -- including when the
plaintiff voluntarily discontinues the case after immunity is asserted. If
a court instead finds that an immunity assertion was frivolous or made
solely to delay the case, the fee-shifting runs the other way, to the party
who opposed it. A separate cause of action at § 8320.1 lets a party who
would have won immunity, but never actually got a ruling on it (for
example because the case settled or was dismissed on other grounds first),
sue afterward to recover fees and, on proof the original suit was pursued
solely to harass or punish, punitive damages.

Right to appeal

An order granting, denying, or otherwise determining immunity is
immediately appealable under Pennsylvania's general interlocutory-appeal
statute, 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 702. This appeal right is already usable
today, independent of whether the § 8340.16 special motion itself has been
activated, because immunity determinations can currently arise from
ordinary preliminary objections or summary judgment motions.

Exemptions

Section 8340.14(b) lists ten categories the law doesn't reach: claims by or
against a government unit; claims against someone primarily in the
business of selling or leasing goods or services over statements tied to
that sale or lease; most claims for bodily injury or death (unless they're
really defamation, invasion of privacy, or emotional-distress claims, or
arise solely from a communication on a matter of public concern); claims
under Pennsylvania's protection-from-abuse or sexual-violence-victim
statutes; insurance-contract claims; trade-secret or corporate-opportunity
misappropriation claims; enforcement of a non-disparagement agreement or
non-compete covenant; and disputes over the internal governance or
manager liability of a business entity.

What trips people up

The law is genuinely split into "already effective" and "not yet
effective" pieces, and getting this wrong matters. Immunity, mandatory
fees, and the right to an immediate appeal are live right now. The
dedicated 60-day special motion and its automatic case-wide stay are not,
pending Pennsylvania Supreme Court rulemaking -- describing the whole UPEPA
as fully operational, the way some secondary sources do, overstates what a
defendant can currently invoke by name.

A defendant can still get the same substantive protection today, just
through a different door. Because § 8340.16(c) preserves the right to
raise protected-public-expression immunity through an ordinary demurrer or
summary judgment motion, the absence of the special motion doesn't mean the
immunity itself is unavailable -- only that the statute's own express
60-day deadline and automatic stay aren't triggered by using that route.

Watch for a real, live case testing exactly this seam. A Pennsylvania
Superior Court panel considered an untimely UPEPA special motion in a
January 2026 defamation case and affirmed its denial on timeliness grounds
without needing to resolve the open question of whether the special motion
mechanism was even in force at the time it was filed -- a sign that courts
are actively grappling with, but haven't yet definitively settled, this
effective-date question.

Common questions

Can I file the special UPEPA motion right now? You can try, but courts
are still working through whether § 8340.16's own mechanism is operative
before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopts a matching procedural rule.
Raising the same immunity through an ordinary preliminary objection or
summary judgment motion is the more clearly available path today.

If I win on immunity, do I automatically get my fees? Yes -- the fee
award to a party who establishes immunity is mandatory, not discretionary,
and runs jointly and severally against everyone who asserted the claim.

What if the case is dismissed before anyone rules on immunity? Section
8320.1 provides a separate lawsuit a party can bring afterward to recover
fees (and, in narrow circumstances, punitive damages) if they would have
won immunity but the court never actually decided the question.

Statutes and sources

• 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 8340.16 — "(a) Authorization.--A party may file
  a special motion for dismissal of or judgment on a cause of action, or
  part of a cause of action, based on a party's protected public expression
  immunity. (b) Time.--A motion under subsection (a) must be made as
  follows: (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), no later than 60 days
  after being served with a pleading asserting a cause of action based on
  protected public expression... (c) Effect.--A motion under subsection (a)
  does not preclude a party from asserting protected public expression
  immunity through other pleadings and motions under the Pennsylvania Rules
  of Civil Procedure. ... (e) Stay.--If a motion under subsection (a) is
  made... all other proceedings in the action are stayed. This paragraph
  includes discovery and the moving party's obligation to file a responsive
  pleading." Source:
  https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=42&div=0&chpt=83&sctn=40&subsctn=16
  (accessed 2026-07-05).
• 2024 Pa. Laws Act 72 (H.B. 1466), Sections 3, 7 — "Section 7. This act
  shall take effect as follows: (1) The addition of 42 Pa.C.S. § 8340.16
  shall take effect on the effective date specified in the notice under
  section 3(4). (2) The remainder of this act shall take effect
  immediately. ... Section 3. ... (1) The Administrative Office of
  Pennsylvania Courts has a duty under paragraph (3) if any of the
  following occur: ... (iii) Promulgation by the Supreme Court of
  Pennsylvania of procedural rules providing substantially the same content
  as the provisions of 42 Pa.C.S. § 8340.16." Source:
  https://www.palegis.us/statutes/unconsolidated/law-information/view-statute?txtType=PDF&SessYr=2024&ActNum=0072.&SessInd=0
  (accessed 2026-07-05).
• 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 8340.15 — "A person is immune from civil
  liability for a cause of action based on protected public expression if
  any of the following paragraphs apply: (1) The party asserting the cause
  of action based on protected public expression fails to: (i) establish a
  prima facie case as to each essential element of the cause of action; or
  (ii) state a cause of action upon which relief can be granted. (2) There
  is no genuine issue as to any material fact, and the person against whom
  the cause of action based on protected public expression has been
  asserted is entitled to judgment as a matter of law in whole or in part."
  Source:
  https://www.palegis.us/statutes/unconsolidated/law-information/view-statute?txtType=PDF&SessYr=2024&ActNum=0072.&SessInd=0
  (accessed 2026-07-05).
• 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 8340.18 — "(a) Party asserting immunity.--If a
  cause of action based on protected public expression is commenced against
  a party, all of the following apply: (1) If the party is immune under
  section 8340.15..., the court shall award the party attorney fees, court
  costs and expenses of litigation jointly and severally against each
  adverse party that asserted the cause of action... (b) Party opposing
  immunity.--If the court determines that a party's assertion of protected
  public expression immunity is frivolous or filed solely with intent to
  delay the proceeding, the court shall award the opposing party attorney
  fees, court costs and expenses of litigation, incurred in opposing the
  assertion of protected public expression immunity." Source:
  https://www.palegis.us/statutes/unconsolidated/law-information/view-statute?txtType=PDF&SessYr=2024&ActNum=0072.&SessInd=0
  (accessed 2026-07-05).