A step towards deterring bullying tactics that silence environmental concerns
A step towards deterring bullying tactics that silence environmental concerns

Oakland, California (November 3, 2022)– Yesterday the United States District Court for the Northern District of California sanctioned Resolute Forest Products, the logging giant behind a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Greenpeace USA.
Specifically, on a motion brought by Greenpeace USA, the Judge ruled that Resolute violated the Court’s order by introducing new theories of damages at the very last second of the discovery process. Magistrate Judge Kandis Arianne Westmore called it “an abuse of the discovery process.” As a result, Resolute will not be allowed to rely on any damages theories disclosed after the Court’s deadline. Secondly, the Court decided that Resolute failed to collect potentially relevant employees’ text messages and lost or failed to produce certain emails and custodial documents.
As a result, the company will have to read a statement during any jury trial that says: “Resolute had a duty to preserve and produce this evidence, but that despite this duty, Resolute failed to do so.” The company is required to pay a substantial portion of Greenpeace USA attorneys’ fees for work incurred on its motion. The Court also found that Resolute’s substantial delay in producing documents was sanctionable, and ordered Resolute to pay Greenpeace USA attorneys’ fees incurred by such delay.
After more than six years of litigation and three years of discovery, Resolute’s attempts to silence and bankrupt Greenpeace USA without complying with their own discovery obligations have been revealed. The company failed to undertake the most basic document preservation, collection, and production processes as required by the law, and explicitly violated the Court’s discovery order. The judge noted that the delay tactic was in bad faith and demonstrated “improper gamesmanship.”
The Court did grant limited evidentiary and monetary sanctions to Resolute on its own motion, arising from the unintentional deletion of certain Skype messages.
Deepa Padmanabha, Greenpeace USA Deputy General Counsel, said: “ From its original complaint, Resolute’s motive has been clear: end environmental advocacy with nuisance litigation designed to chill our speech and burn through our resources. While we have been fighting this legal battle for over six years, this positive ruling puts us one step closer to ending this saga. We are ready to move on from this distraction and return to protecting our planet.”
In response to a campaign publicly exposing the company’s practices, Resolute launched a multimillion-dollar legal and public relations attack against its critics. In 2013, Resolute filed a defamation and economic interference case for CAD$7 million against Greenpeace Canada and two of its staff members. In May 2016, Resolute filed a CAD$300 million lawsuit for racketeering and other claims in the United States against several Greenpeace entities, including five individual activists, and Stand.earth.
Instead of embracing sustainable forestry and investing in healthy forests, Resolute is trying to intimidate critics like Greenpeace with lawsuits that threaten free speech. Greenpeace USA will vigorously fight the very narrow defamation claims that remain.
Padmanabha, said: “The right to protest and to speak out about injustices and issues affecting our everyday lives has been at the center of civic life since our country’s earliest days. But, for decades, bullies in positions of power have filed meritless lawsuits, not to win, but to intimidate and silence public watchdogs and drown them in legal fees. There’s a name for these kinds of lawsuits: SLAPPs — or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.
“These types of bullying legal tactics are used to silence everyday people including journalists and activists such as Greenpeace campaigners, Indigenous water protectors, and Movement for Black Lives protestors. Sanctioning Resolute is not only a positive development in this lawsuit; it also sends a clear message to other companies using legal bullying tactics against those who speak out against them: your tactics won’t work!
“To protect our First Amendment right to free speech, Rep. Jamie Raskin introduced a bill this fall that would deter corporations and individuals from filing lawsuits like these that attack protected speech. This is the first such bill at the federal level, building on the nonpartisan success of legislation in 32 states and the District of Columbia.”
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Contact: Valentina Stackl, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, [email protected], (734) 276 6260
Greenpeace USA is part of a global network of independent campaigning organizations that use peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Greenpeace USA is committed to transforming the country’s unjust social, environmental, and economic systems from the ground up to address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first. Learn more at www.greenpeace.org/usa.