Margolis

I. Background

Tran lived with her daughter Ngoc Giau Nguyen in San Jose. Nguyen defaulted on her mortgage payments in late 2008 or early 2009. She retained Margolis to help her

1 Subsequent statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure unless otherwise noted. apply for a loan modification. The lender refused to modify the loan, and Nguyen lost her house to foreclosure. In August 2010, she sued Margolis for professional negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair business practices, and intentional misrepresentation. Nguyen’s complaint alleged that Margolis “fail[ed] to do anything about the loan modification or pending foreclosure,” “allow[ed] a non-attorney to render legal advice” to her, “never performed any legal service whatsoever and completely failed to communicate with his client.” Margolis cross-complained against Nguyen and Does 1-100 for slander per se and intentional interference with economic relations. He alleged that cross-defendants made false statements about him during a call-in Vietnamese language radio broadcast about real estate topics in August 2009. Specifically, Margolis alleged that cross-defendants stated that he “caused [Nguyen] to lose her…