Court: Supreme Court of Nevada
Citation: 137 Nev. Adv. Op. No. 73
Opinion Date: December 2, 2021
Judge: James W. Hardesty
Areas of Law: Personal Injury
This case law update is brought to you by Freeway Law auto accident and personal injury lawyers in Orange County. The following is not one of our cases, but it is of some significance, and we thought we should share it with our readers for informational purposes. The information above is for informational purposes only and not to be construed as legal advice.
The Supreme Court affirmed the order of the district court denying Defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s complaint alleging slander and conspiracy, holding that Defendant failed to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that his alleged communication leading to the civil complaint was made in good faith.
At issue was how the district court at step one of the anti-SLAPP evaluation should proceed when Defendant denied making the alleged statement. The district court used Plaintiff’s version of the alleged defamatory statement during its step-one analysis and then denied the motion to dismiss. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) Defendant’s denial that he made the alleged statement was irrelevant to step one of the anti-SLAPP analysis; (2) Defendant’s alleged statement did not constitute a nonactionable opinion; and (3) the district court correctly denied Defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss.
