Kim

INTRODUCTION

In May 2019, Andy Kim filed a lawsuit against law firm Metsch & Mason, LLP, its partners Paul S. Metsch and Michael J. Mason (collectively, the law firm defendants), and their clients R Consulting & Sales, Inc. (R Consulting), Raquel Michel, and Lance Ricotta for malicious prosecution, abuse of process, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In his suit, Kim alleged the defendants wrongfully initiated contempt charges in connection with their enforcement of a civil judgment against him in R Consulting v. Info Tech et al. (Super. Ct. San Diego County, 2015, No. 37- 2015-00002561-CU-BC-CTL.) The defendants filed motions to strike the

complaint under Code of Civil Procedure1 section 425.16, the anti-SLAPP statute, and the court granted the motions and entered judgments against Kim. Kim appeals the court’s grant of the anti-SLAPP motions, contending: (1) an order to show cause regarding contempt can form the basis of a malicious prosecution action; (2) the trial court erred in concluding that Kim could not show a probability of success on his malicious prosecution claim because it applied an incorrect standard to determine whether the defendants had probable…