Anti-SLAPP

The Anti-SLAPP statute protects the defendant, an employee of plaintiff, from plaintiff’s breach of contract action arising from the employee’s decision to file an employment lawsuit, notwithstanding the arbitration clause in his employment agreement. Read More

Air quality district sued plaintiff for violating various state laws banning emissions of air contaminants in his agricultural activities; the district was entitled to win its Anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss plaintiff’s cross-complaint since it arose from the district's protected conduct in suing him for his emissions. Read More

Ads for musical, political or artistic works are not categorically excluded from protection under the Anti-SLAPP statute, but still must concern a matter of public interest to be protected; here, an ad for Michael Jackson’s posthumous record album was protected because its claim Jackson was the lead singer on three tracks addressed a matter of public interest. Read More

Civ. Code 1942.5(d) and (h), which grant a tenant a cause of action for a landlord's retaliatory eviction create an implied exception to the litigation privilege since otherwise the anti-retaliation statute would be rendered toothless; so tenant survived landlord’s Anti-SLAPP motion. Read More

Under Civil Code 47(b)’s divorce exception, ex-wife’s allegedly defamatory statements about a nanny in a declaration filed in her marital dissolution proceeding are not protected by the litigation privilege. Read More

Defendant school board members’ Anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied since it failed to show that plaintiff’s claims that defendants disclosed her medical records and threatened her arose out of school board’s official proceedings. Read More

An appellate opinion on an Anti-SLAPP motion directed at the original complaint was not the law of the case as to a later similar motion against an amended complaint that substantially changed the nature of the pleading. Read More

The Legislature directed the Inspector General to investigate the treatment of prisoners at the High Desert prison, so the IG’s office should have won its Anti-SLAPP motion when it got sued for interrogating police officers, allegedly in violation of the Police Officers’ Bill of Rights Act.  Read More

In federal court, an Anti-SLAPP motion based on purely legal arguments is analyzed under the motion to dismiss standards, while an Anti-SLAPP motion challenging the factual support for plaintiff’s claims is governed by summary judgment standards and the plaintiff must be allowed discovery. Read More

Legal malpractice actions generally are not SLAPPs even though much evidence to prove the malpractice claim involves actions taken in the prosecution or defense of the underlying action. Read More

Defendant’s complaint about plaintiff to the private Certified Financial Planners Board of Standards is not protected speech under the Anti-SLAPP statute since the Board is neither a government agency nor a public forum. Read More

Defendant was entitled to Anti-SLAPP protection against celebrity plaintiff’s complaint alleging that defendant’s TV docu-drama misappropriated her right to publicity. Read More

The trial court properly granted defendant landlord's Anti-SLAPP motion to strike plaintiff's claim that the landlord violated Santa Monica's anti-harassment ordinance by filing an unlawful detainer complaint against the plaintiff which supposedly lacked sufficient factual and legal support. Read More

Unless the trial court in its discretion permits a later filing, an Anti-SLAPP motion to strike a cause of action must be filed within 60 days of service of the first complaint alleging that claim. Read More

Defendant was entitled to Anti-SLAPP protection after plaintiff sued it for defamation and interference with economic advantage based on defendant’s activities in lobbying local government to disallow plaintiff’s proposed subdivision. Read More

An employer could not pursue a lawsuit against former employee’s lawyer for disclosing, in course of False Claims Act suit, documents that the employee had taken with him after being fired. Read More

In the anti-SLAPP context, if a complaint itself shows that a claim arises from protected conduct, a moving party may rely on the plaintiff's allegations alone in making the showing necessary under prong one without submitting supporting evidence. Read More

In deciding whether a defendant’s conduct is protected activity within the meaning of the anti-SLAPP statute, each defendant’s conduct must be analyzed separately. Read More

A voluntary dismissal without prejudice is sufficient evidence of a favorable termination for purposes of a later malicious prosecution suit. Read More

One heir’s suit against another, which sought to disinherit a co-heir defendant under the no contest clause in the decedent's trust, is a suit based on protected activity and thus is subject to an Anti-SLAPP motion to strike, since the defendant’s prior contest was a protected judicial proceeding. Read More