Singh

I. INTRODUCTION

Colton Health, LLC (Colton) sued its former employees, Ramesh Kumar Moolani (Moolani) and Ignacio Iturbe (Iturbe), claiming they improperly left its oncology practice to establish a competing medical practice known as Ramesh Kumar Moolani, M.D., Inc. (Moolani Inc.). In response to a letter Colton sent to the local medical community describing the dispute, Moolani, Iturbe, and Moolani Inc. (collectively Appellants) filed a cross-complaint against Colton and two of its officers, Sukhjit Singh Ghuman (Ghuman) and Ray Kahn (Kahn), alleging defamation and improper business practices. Colton, Ghuman, and Kahn then filed a special motion to strike

the cross-complaint under the anti-SLAPP statute,1 which the trial court denied against Colton and granted for Ghuman and Kahn. Appellants now seek review of the ruling favoring Ghuman and Kahn, challenging the trial court’s application of both the litigation privilege and the anti-SLAPP statute’s commercial speech exemption. Finding no error, we affirm.

II. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Colton initiated this case on January 21, 2022, by filing a complaint against Appellants and several other individuals for breach of…