Attorney's suit who tried to have his own client conserved continues in Marin County

See Fearnotlaw.com link for complete duscussion and ruling on this defamation suit. This appeal presents a claim that the trial court erred in refusing to dismiss a defamation action as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (“SLAPP suit”) when it denied a motion to strike brought under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16.[1] We affirm. BACKGROUND In March 2002, Coastal Post Online published an article by Therese Alvillar entitled “County Fails to Protect Frail Elderly.” The article addressed the dangers of potential financial exploitation facing Marin County’s aging population and discussed several episodes in which court-appointed conservators were said to plunder or misappropriate the assets of the elders they were appointed to protect. It observed that some court-appointed conservators made it a practice to isolate the conservatee and exclude his or her family from participating in major decisions. In this context, Alvillar wrote, “Ironically, this type of Court-appointed professional’s behavior mirrors that of criminal embezzlers who isolate the victim from his or her family and exert undue influence to gain control. The estate is then churned for fees until the assets have been depleted.” The article went on to describe an alleged attempt by attorney Nancy Field and conservator Margaret Boyden “to conserve the person and estate of an 85-year-old retired Tiburon man without his consent, without notifying his family, without having any personal knowledge of his health or circumstances, and without ever having met him. They did know, however, that he owned valuable real estate in San Francisco and that appears why the conservatorship attempt was made through that county’s Probate Court. Although it is generally considered to be unethical for an attorney to conserve his or her own client, the elder’s attorney, Christopher J. Bakes, enlisted Field’s cooperation to do just that by giving her privileged information which she readily accepted.” The article continued: “Within 48 hours, Field and Boyden prepared temporary and permanent conservatorship papers and served the man with a notice of ex parte hearing (where only the petitioner’s side of the case would be heard by the Judge in private) for the following week. Field admitted these details of the conservatorship attempt with Bakes and Boyden in her own declaration signed under oath, dated September 22, 2000. San Francisco attorney, Barbara Jagiello was called in by the victim to thwart their scheme which caused Field and Boyden to retreat.” Bakes considered the article defamatory and demanded a retraction of Alvillar and the Coastal Post, to no avail. He then sued Alvillar, the Coastal Post, and its owner for defamation. Defendants moved to strike the complaint under section 425.16. The trial court denied the motion, finding the suit was subject to the anti-SLAPP statute but that Bakes had established a reasonable probability that he would prevail on the merits. Defendants filed a timely appeal.[2]