Legal Memos

Pech v. Doniger (2022) 75 Cal.App.5th 443. In this case a plaintiff who was also an attorney filed a lawsuit against his former clients and their new attorneys alleging that there had been interference with his fee agreement by the new attorney telling the clients not to file a complaint that the plaintiff had drafted. The new attorney filed a SLAPP motion. The trial court granted it and the court of appeal affirmed it with the court finding that the alleged activity was protected. Advice about the clients proposed litigation and their obligations under the plaintiff’s fee agreement was provided to them in preparation for litigation. The legal advice was therefore protected prelitigation speech. Additionally, plaintiff did not demonstrate a probability of prevailing on the merits because the claim was barred by the litigation privilege in Civil Code § 47(b).

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Related Attorney(s):
Gregory L. McCoy