Tag Archives: Negotiations

How to Tell the Difference Between Negotiations and Extortion

  
Michele Trausch and Neil Bardack
September 22, 2014

The court of appeal in Stenehjem v. Sareen, 226 Cal.App.4th 1405 (2014) recently revisited the question of when aggressive or belligerent pre-litigation negotiations cross the line from “veiled threats” to criminal extortion. Once determined to be the crime of extortion, the statements are not protected speech under the litigation privilege in Civ. Code section 47 or under the anti-SLAPP statute in Code Civ. Proc. Section 425.16. But how do you know in advance where that line is?

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