Lawyer’s Letter Viewed As A Threat.

Plaintiff brought an action against defendant, a lawyer, after defendant sent him a letter: “As you are aware, I have been retained to represent Media Print & Copy . We are in the process of uncovering the substantial fraud, conversion and breaches of contract that your client has committed on my client. . . . To date we have uncovered damages exceeding $75,000, not including interest applied thereto, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. If your client does not agree to cooperate with our investigation and provide us with a repayment of such damages caused, we will be forced to proceed with filing a legal action against him, as well as reporting him to the California Attorney General, the Los Angeles District Attorney, the Internal Revenue Service regarding tax fraud, the Better Business Bureau, as well as to customers and vendors with whom he may be perpetrating the same fraud upon.”  Defendant filed an anti-SLAPP motion pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16, which the trial court denied while ordering defendant to pay attorney fees, and defendant appealed. Noting “the threat to report a crime may constitute extortion even if the victim did in fact commit a crime,” the appellate court affirmed. Mendoza v. Hamzeh (Cal. App. Second Dist., Div. 1; April 22, 2013) 215 Cal.App.4th 799.