Freeman

Plaintiffs Arleen Freeman and James Alexander appeal from a judgment entered after the trial court granted defendant Alexander Schack’s special motion to strike their complaint under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16. Plaintiffs sued Schack for breach of contract, professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty based on allegations that he had entered into a contract by which he assumed attorney-client duties toward plaintiffs but abandoned them in order to represent adverse interests in the same and different litigation, thus breaching the contract as well as the fiduciary duties owed them. The trial court granted Schack’s special motion to strike as to all causes of action on grounds plaintiffs’ causes of action stemmed from petitioning activity and plaintiffs did not demonstrate a probability of prevailing on their causes of action because the Noerr-Pennington doctrine provided a complete defense.

Plaintiffs contend the trial court erred in granting the special motion to strike because (1) Schack did not meet his burden of proving his actions— which constitute violations of State Bar Rules of Professional Conduct—were constitutionally protected; (2)…