The People v. Persolve, LLC
Opinion
Opinion
Levy, J.
Appellant, the People of the State of California, through the Kem County District Attorney (the People), filed a civil law enforcement action against respondents, Persolve, LLC (Persolve), a debt collection company, and Persolve’s attorneys, Alaine Patti-Jelsvik and Edit Alexandryan. The People alleged that respondents repeatedly violated California’s Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (California Act) and the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (Federal Act). (Civ. Code, § 1788 et seq.; 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.) Based on these allegations, the People set forth one cause of action for violation of California's unfair competition law. (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200 et seq.)
The issue on appeal is whether the People’s complaint against Persolve and its lawyers is barred by the litigation privilege. (Civ. Code, § 47, subd. (b).) The trial court concluded that it was because the conduct alleged to be unlawful consisted of communications and communicative acts related to judicial proceedings. Accordingly, the trial court sustained respondents’ demurrer to the complaint without leave to amend and dismissed the action.