{"id":2973,"date":"2021-11-04T18:34:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T18:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.astralegal.com\/?p=2973"},"modified":"2022-07-08T23:38:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T23:38:53","slug":"anti-slapp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astralegal.com\/anti-slapp\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does it Take to Prevail on an Anti-SLAPP Motion? The Ad Astra Team!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astralegal.com\/staff\/sarah-murphy-executive-administrator\/\">Sarah Murphy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSLAPP\u201d stands for \u201cStrategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation\u201d and its primary function is to \u201cprevent citizens from exercising their political rights or punishing those who have done so\u201d.[1] The result is that SLAPP suits often pose as civil claims such as \u201cdefamation, conspiracy, malicious prosecution, nuisance, interference with contract and\/or economic advantage, as a means of transforming public debate into lawsuits\u201d.[2]<\/p>\n<p>Achieving resolution in an Anti-SLAPP matter involves two factors: 1) the defendant must establish that the challenged claim arises from a protected activity outlined in CCP \u00a7 425.16, and once established, 2) the burden then shifts to the plaintiff to establish the merit of their claim by showing a probability of success.\u00a0 In other words, an Anti-SLAPP motion is like a summary judgment motion, but \u2018in reverse,\u2019 as the defendants needs to defeat the plaintiff\u2019s pleading by showing it is legally or factually meritless.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, Ad Astra associate Wendy Hillger secured a $45,000 fee award for our client. The matter involved plaintiff American Cannabis Partners claiming unfair competition against Brown\u2019s Lumber Company, a cannabis business in Trinity County, CA owned in part by Trinity County Supervisor Jeremy Brown. The plaintiff alleged that Supervisor Brown used his influence with the Board of Supervisors to block American Cannabis Partners from receiving any licenses to operate cannabis businesses in Trinity County, and that Supervisor Brown\u2019s private business is liable for Supervisor Brown\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n<p>Ad Astra filed a demurrer followed by an Anti-SLAPP motion. Successful Anti-SLAPP motions dismiss the claims that are based on a litigant\u2019s participation in a public process. Here, the court dismissed the plaintiff\u2019s claim in its entirety on the basis that the plaintiff could not make a claim for unfair competition on the facts presented.<\/p>\n<p>Ad Astra filed a fees motion, arguing that even though the case was dismissed on demurrer, the Anti-SLAPP motion was still pending and fully briefed, and the dismissal does not moot our entitlement to fees under the Anti-SLAPP statute. The court agreed with Ad Astra that Brown\u2019s Lumber would have prevailed on the Anti-SLAPP motion and awarded our client with $45,000 in fees. We are thrilled with the result!<\/p>\n<p>[1] <em>Church of Scientology v. Wollersheim<\/em> (1996) 42 Cal.App.4th 628, 642 (<em>Wollersheim<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>[2] <em>Wilcox<\/em>, <em>supra<\/em>, 27 Cal.App.4th at pp.816-817<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-show-count=\"false\">Tweet<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/platform.linkedin.com\/in.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\">lang: en_US<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"IN\/Share\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.astralegal.com\/anti-slapp\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v12.0\" nonce=\"MvLO3awq\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-share-button\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.astralegal.com\/anti-slapp\/\" data-layout=\"button_count\" data-size=\"small\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdevelopers.facebook.com%2Fdocs%2Fplugins%2F&src=sdkpreparse\" class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\" rel=\"noopener\">Share<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Sarah Murphy \u201cSLAPP\u201d stands for \u201cStrategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation\u201d and its primary function is to \u201cprevent citizens from exercising their political rights or punishing those who have done so\u201d.[1] The result is that SLAPP suits often pose as civil claims such as \u201cdefamation, conspiracy, malicious prosecution, nuisance, interference with contract and\/or economic advantage, … <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astralegal.com\/anti-slapp\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> “What Does it Take to Prevail on an Anti-SLAPP Motion? The Ad Astra Team!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Does it Take to Prevail on an Anti-SLAPP Motion? The Ad Astra Team! - Ad Astra Law Group, LLP<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.astralegal.com\/anti-slapp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does it Take to Prevail on an Anti-SLAPP Motion? The Ad Astra Team! - Ad Astra Law Group, LLP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: Sarah Murphy \u201cSLAPP\u201d stands for \u201cStrategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation\u201d and its primary function is to \u201cprevent citizens from exercising their political rights or punishing those who have done so\u201d.[1] The result is that SLAPP suits often pose as civil claims such as \u201cdefamation, conspiracy, malicious prosecution, nuisance, interference with contract and\/or economic advantage, … Continue reading "What Does it Take to Prevail on an Anti-SLAPP Motion? 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