Anti-Slapp Benchslap

Hewlett-Packard Co. v. Oracle Corp., No. H039507 (D6 Aug. 27, 2015)

Defendant in this case filed an anti-SLAPP motion in between phases of a two-phase trial. The trial court denied it because it was filed long past the sixty-day window in Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16(f), and because Defendant lacked a substantial justification for the late filing. Defendant then effectively deep-sixed the second phase of the trial by taking an immediate appeal. The court of appeal is not too very happy about the way this all played out.