Thread by @alittleleader

There is a problem we need to talk about. Survivors of sexual & domestic violence are doing something incredible: They’re speaking up.

But when they do, their abusers are using the legal system to punish them. And we're not protecting them.

This is a thread about that.

The best term I’ve found to describe what’s happening here is "Procedural Abuse."

Procedural abuse happens when an abuser misuses legal or administrative systems to maintain power and control over a survivor.

Procedural abuse can look a lot of different ways. Abusers may file false complaints against a survivor at their school or workplace. They may make complaints to immigration authorities. They may take out bogus protective orders against the survivor.

This problem has always existed. But in the wake of #MeToo, it's emerged from the shadows. There’s not a lot of data on frequency of procedural abuse. But anecdotally among survivors & service providers, there has been a significant recent uptick in abusive procedural actions.

Recently, a major tool of procedural abuse has been frivolous (usually defamation) lawsuits.

The key point about abusive lawsuits is that they are, by definition, without merit. They are filed or threatened by abusers not for the purpose of prevailing (though they may, as an added bonus) but for the purpose of intimidating or silencing survivors who choose to speak out.

What those who have never been involved in a lawsuit don’t realize is that the cost of defending these suits–– even if the suit gets dismissed early on–– can be tens of thousands of dollars. Costs sometimes climb well into the six figures.

The financial costs of procedural abuse can push survivors into poverty.

Of course, the emotional costs can’t even be quantified. The lawsuits require survivors to continue interacting with their abuser.

Some might settle in an effort to move forward. Settlement almost always means a survivor ends up paying the person who harmed them. Settlements often include terms that prevent survivors from speaking about the harm at all.

Not settling, though, compounds the emotional costs.

Depositions require survivors to relive the trauma in order to prove it happened. Discovery gives abusers access to some of the most private details of survivors’ lives. Trial is… unimaginable.

All of this can stretch on for years and directly impact survivors’ recovery.

And the impacts of these suits stretch far beyond those who are actually sued. Fear of these sorts of abusive procedural actions can prevent survivors from ever coming forward at all.

This all would be bad enough as it is, but it gets worse. Safeguards for survivors who experience abusive lawsuits are nearly non-existent.

Free & low-cost legal services many survivors rely on are often not equipped to take on these cases. They are too long, too expensive, and too resource-heavy. In some cases, attorneys at these organizations might not have the specialized knowledge needed to best defend survivors.

Even if legal service organizations feel able to support survivors facing these suits, they may not be allowed to–– they are often funded by federal grants that only allow them to take on a specific scope of cases. Cases like these often go beyond that scope.

Survivors’ other option is to retain private counsel, which they may not be able to afford.

Even when survivors can afford private counsel, it may be difficult for them to find representation that has both the specialization needed to defend their case and background knowledge in the challenges survivors face and the support they may need.

There are some laws––anti-SLAPP laws––that can provide survivors in these situations extra protection. A good anti-SLAPP law can help survivors get frivolous lawsuits dismissed as quickly as possible & may even make the those who sue them pay their attorneys’ fees.

But not every state has an anti-SLAPP law. And of the states that do have anti-SLAPP laws, only a handful of those laws actually protect survivors facing these sorts of lawsuits. And of those that protect survivors, only a handful award them legal fees. Etc., etc., etc.

There is no Federal anti-SLAPP law. And when a survivor is sued in federal court, even if their state has an anti-SLAPP law, certain courts may not apply that law in their case.

Abusers who files these suits know all of this, too, and in some cases, they may purposefully file suit in a jurisdiction where a survivor has limited protections.

In order to fix this problem, we need to do a lot of work. At the very least, we need:

1. Attorneys trained and funded to provide free, trauma-informed legal services to survivors facing procedural abuse.

2. Education for survivors and survivor service organizations around procedural abuse.

3. More and stronger state anti-SLAPP statutes.

4. A strong federal anti-SLAPP statute.

Until we start working towards these things, survivors aren’t safe from procedural abuse. And the promise of the #MeToo movement––that we will hear and value survivors’ voices as catalysts for change––are empty.

And in hopes of speaking things into being: My own professional goal is to work towards ending procedural abuse and protecting survivors’ voices.

If this is something that interests you, or if you have the resources to host or financially sponsor a project with those goals, I would love to connect. (I have a detailed plan ready to send your way!)

I'm calling this very long thread done-ish. But I’m going to periodically add some related cases, resources, reads, below for anyone interested.