Event Date:
Jun 29, 2021 12:00 PM
Speaker:
Ryan Szczepanik & Ciaran O'Sullivan
Venue:
The Trusts and Estates Section of the California Lawyers Association
A “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” or SLAPP suit, is a court filing complaining of injury as a result of petitioning the court or free speech activity. A SLAPP suit is controversial. Its intent often is to intimidate perceived adversaries by burdening them with the expense of a legal defense until they are silenced. Critics of SLAPP suits cheered when Cal. Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16 was enacted in 1992. Section 425.16 allows a special motion to strike a SLAPP suit. A Section 425.16 special motion to strike, called an “anti-SLAPP” motion, is a powerful tool that litigators can wield against SLAPP suits.
Over the years, the broad reach of the anti-SLAPP motion has itself generated controversy. Litigators, as they often do, have pushed the envelope of this powerful tool, threatening anti-SLAPP motions against all kinds of lawsuits. In short, the tool intended to curb litigation abuse has become the subject of abuse.
Reigning in the application of anti-SLAPP motions has become a hot topic in probate and trust litigation. That topic also is before the legislature: pending Senate Bill 329 proposes the prohibition of anti-SLAPP motions in trust and will contest proceedings.
A “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” or SLAPP suit, is a court filing complaining[..]
Married couples often don’t give much thought to the characterization of their property as community or separate. In general, community property is all real or personal property acquired by a married person during the marriage. Separate property is all property owned by the person before the marriage, all property acquired by the person after marriage by gift, bequest or devise, and the rents and profits from the person’s separate property.
When most people hear about elder abuse, they think of cruel or apathetic caregivers leaving elderly family and friends unattended or physically abusing them. But elder abuse is more than physical abuse: when someone takes any property - including real estate, cash, or any other asset or interest - from a person over the age of 65 by fraud or undue influence, it constitutes financial elder abuse.