Premier Medical Management Systems, Inc. v. California Insurance Guarantee Ass'n

The principal issue on this appeal is whether the trial court erred in denying a special motion to strike a complaint under the anti-SLAPP law, Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (strategic lawsuit against public participation, hereafter section 425.16). The dispute originated in efforts by insurers and employers to obtain a determination from the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) as to whether the plaintiff Premier Medical Management Systems, Inc. was improperly representing treating physicians in WCAB proceedings. Premier and five affiliated treating physicians sued the insurers and employers, alleging various tort and statutory causes of action based on claims that tire defendants were in fact engaged in anticompetitive activity. The trial court denied the defendants’ special motion to strike.

We conclude the complaint falls within the ambit of section 425.16. We also conclude that plaintiffs cannot establish a probability of prevailing on the merits because the conduct of defendants which forms the basis for the complaint is petitioning activity protected by the First Amendment. Plaintiffs fail to present any exception to that doctrine that would enable…