12.8. a maximum limit on the financial guarantees that may be required and imposed on the defendant, which must remain reasonable in the light of his or her actual means, precluding in principle the total freezing of his or her bank accounts;

12.9. a maximum limit on the damages and legal defence costs that may be imposed on the defendant;

12.10. legal and financial assistance for the defendant, including where the defendant is a legal entity, and psychological support where the defendant is a natural person;

12.11. access to early warning mechanisms for SLAPP targets in cases where their physical safety is threatened, and, in exceptional cases, to processes for voluntary evacuation and/or State protection;

12.12. the right of the defendant to be fully and promptly reimbursed for all costs and expenses incurred in defending the case, as well as the right to be awarded, in addition to ordinary pecuniary damages, a reasonable compensation of non-pecuniary damages for the emotional distress and punitive damages of a sufficiently substantial amount where the abusive nature of the claimant’s action is established;

12.13. a fine or financial penalty to be paid by the claimant and to be collected by the State, for the damage caused to the judicial system by the bringing of abusive litigation; the amount of this financial penalty should be determined by the court, taking due account of the claimant’s financial situation, in order to ensure that it has a genuine deterrent effect.

13. The Assembly notes that while SLAPPs are frequently civil lawsuits, they can also be in the form of administrative and criminal procedures. Therefore, it calls on member States to:

13.1. review administrative and criminal procedures which may have a chilling effect on the freedom of expression and public participation, in order to offset or at least reduce such an effect, and, in particular, decriminalise defamation, as criminal prosecution on this basis constitutes the main threat for people reporting on matters of public interest;

13.2. encourage administrative courts, public prosecutors and criminal jurisdictions to make use of the procedural powers they have to reduce the impact on public participation of administrative and penal lawsuits, namely fast-tracking criminal and administrative procedures which may hinder public participation, managing them to avoid useless delays and closing them as rapidly as possible;

13.3. provide for rapid and full compensation of the defendant’s costs and damages (including non-pecuniary ones) also in the framework of criminal procedures or administrative procedures which are eventually dismissed;

13.4. provide that the defendant is eligible for (financial and other) support mechanisms also in case of criminal or administrative procedures, when public participation is at stake.

14. The Assembly considers that members of the judiciary and bar associations have a central role to play in combating SLAPPs. Accordingly, it calls on member States to:

14.1. raise awareness among all judicial authorities of the phenomenon of SLAPPs, in particular by stepping up monitoring of the number and nature of SLAPP cases brought before the courts;

14.2. include specific training in the curricula of judicial training institutions to make judges aware of the abusive nature of SLAPPs and the various strategies that claimants may employ so that they can detect and counter them;

14.3. encourage the regulatory authorities of the legal profession to include the fight against SLAPPs explicitly in their codes of ethics, to improve the training of their members to make them aware of the phenomenon and to require them, on pain of disciplinary action, to refrain from knowingly participating in the actions of clients who are clearly seeking to abuse the legal system by bringing SLAPPs and deliberately prolonging such proceedings.

15. The Assembly stresses that developing multilateral co-operation at European level is key to countering SLAPPs effectively and calls on member States to strengthen judicial co-operation with a view to:

15.1. develop smart procedural rules to avoid multiple SLAPPs in different States;

15.2. ensure mutual recognition of decisions establishing that a lawsuit was a SLAPP, also to secure the implementation of dissuasive measures;

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