Brar
People Ex Rel. Lockyer v. Brar
Opinion
Opinion
Sills, J.
I. Background
On July 8, 2003, in the wake of the Trevor Law Group scandal, California’s Attorney General sued attorney Harpreet Brar to make him stop filing similar shakedown lawsuits against small businesses under the unfair competition law (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200 et seq.).
Brar certainly knew of the litigation brought against him by the Attorney General. He demurred to the complaint, the demurrer was overruled, and Brar was given 15 days in which to answer. But instead of answering, Brar filed a motion to strike under the anti-SLAPP statute.
The motion to strike was denied, but it bought time. It enabled Brar to delay trial court proceedings by appealing from the denial order. As we explained in a published opinion arising out of the case (People ex rel. Lockyer v. Brar (2004) 115 Cal.App.4th 1315 [ 9 Cal.Rptr.3d 844 ]), parties do indeed have the right to appeal from orders denying anti-SLAPP motions; and, as we concluded in Brar (and as was later definitively held by our Supreme Court in Varian Medical Systems, Inc. v. Delfino (2005) 35 Cal.4th 180 [ 25 Cal.Rptr.3d 298 ]), any appeal from the denial of an anti-SLAPP motion automatically stays further trial…