Bedolla

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff is an attorney who represented defendant LIL, Inc. (LIL), in a civil matter. When LIL failed to pay for services rendered, plaintiff sued LIL and its officers and directors (defendants Adam Wang and Jennifer Wang) for breach of contract and common counts (the collection action). Several months into the collection action and after not opposing plaintiff’s request for a prejudgment writ of attachment, defendants cross-complained to allege breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment, and they demanded a jury trial. Plaintiff prevailed at trial in the collection

SLAPP is an acronym for “ ‘strategic lawsuit against public participation.’ ”

(Jarrow Formulas, Inc. v. LaMarche (2003) 31 Cal.4th 728, 732, fn. 1.) action. Judgment was entered on April 24, 2017, in favor of plaintiff and against defendants in the amount of $115,806.86. The trial court denied plaintiff’s posttrial motion for attorney fees as a sanction under Code of Civil Procedure section 128.5. Plaintiff sued defendants again a year later for malicious prosecution, alleging defendants had acted without probable cause in bringing the cross-complaint in the collection…