Maxwell v. AIG Domestic Claims, Inc.

The defendants appeal from the denial of their special motion to dismiss made pursuant to G. L. c. 231, § 59H, the so-called anti-SLAPP statute.2 “Strategic litigation” is indeed implicated in this case, although not as the Legislature intended, nor as the defendants argue. The statute was enacted in order to protect ordinary citizens from meritless litigation brought by large private interests for the purpose of tamping or threatening citizens’ rights to petition their government. See Duracraft Corp. v. Holmes Prods. Corp., 427 Mass. 156, 161 (1998); Matter of the Discipline of an Attorney,…