In a recent 2nd District Court of Appeal case, the Court held that contractual arbitration proceeding is not protected activity under the anti-SLAP Statute (Code of Civil Procedure 425.16). In Zhang v. Jenevein 2019 DJDAR 604, the Court held that even though arbitration awards are subject to judicial confirmation, contractual arbitration is not an “official proceeding” and therefore, it does not fit any of the four anti-SLAP categories. Thus the party who had secretly recorded conversations and introduced them in arbitration to aid in receiving a successful arbitration award could not use the anti-SLAP Statute or the Civil Litigation Privilege (Civil Code Section 47) to defend against the resulting lawsuit for invasion of privacy and recording confidential communications.
