Ohio lawmakers may be on summer break now, but when they return to work they’ll have a chance to remove the Buckeye State from the list of those favored by forum-shopping attorneys looking for a sweet spot to file their clients’ frivolous lawsuits.

House Bill 637 and Senate Bill 237 are aimed at quickly shutting down SLAPP lawsuits, or strategic lawsuits against public participation. According to a report by the Dayton Daily News, the bills have support on both sides of the aisle.

HB 637 was introduced by state Reps. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, and Elliott Forhan, D-Euclid, in June.

“Our legal system is, by default, extremely open and it doesn’t really do that good of a job at weeding out frivolous, baseless cases before they’ve sucked up a lot of time and money for the people who are the targets,” Stewart told the Daily News.

But HB 637, and SB 237 would create, essentially, a motion to dismiss the case due to frivolity, with the plaintiff paying the defendant’s court fees if the motion succeeds.

“(Let’s) put Ohio in the other category where we have strong anti-SLAPP laws so when these bad actors, when they go looking across all the jurisdictions, Ohio is not a place where they can come and do their SLAPPs,” Forhan said, according to the Daily News.

It seems like a no-brainer, but lawmakers will have a lot on their plates when they return — and it must all be handled between the day after the November general election and the end of the year. This one must not slip through the cracks.

To fail to protect Ohioans from frivolous lawsuits (and predatory lawyers) would be a slap in the face.

editorial@vindy.com