The Gravamen of Litigation Malpractice

Sprengel v. Zbylut, No. B256761 (D2d7 Oct. 13, 2015)

The anti-SLAPP statute can be tricky when it comes to cases involving litigation malpractice. To the extent that the claims touch on stuff an attorney does in court they at least superficially can seem to satisfy the first, “arising from” element of the two-pronged test. But on a less literal level, that doesn’t make any sense. A malpractice claim that a client brings against his own attorney has essentially nothing to with chilling anyone’s First Amendment rights, even if the attorney’s in-court or litigation related statements are somehow implicated in the malpractice.