Legal Memo

Moten v. Transworld Systems, Inc. (2023) 98 Cal.App.5th 691. This is a SLAPP case. A consumer filed a Complaint alleging that a debt collector had violated the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the debt collector filed a SLAPP motion. The Court held that the debt collector engaged in protected activity by filing a collection action which under the litigation privilege might have been enough to grant the SLAPP motion, but allegations of document fraud that were contained in the Complaint encompassed more than the filing of the collection action and pled other faults or defective means to collect or attempt to collect on the debt. The Complaint also alleged that the Plaintiff was bringing the action on behalf of herself and in the public interest and the trial court appeared not to have considered the public interest exception in CCP § 425.17. The matter was as a result remanded to determine the public interest exception and whether the Plaintiff had shown the probability of prevailing on her causes of action.

/ilc