• Qualified Source: Demand Letter Sent by Girardi & Keese’s Thomas Girardi to DLA Piper Does Not Amount to Extortion/Attempted Extortion

    California Supreme Court decision, Footnote 16 which reads:

    “We emphasize that our conclusion that Mauro’s communications constituted criminal extortion as a matter of law are based on the specific and extreme circumstances of this case. Extortion is the threat to accuse the victim of a crime or “expose, or impute to him · any deformity, disgrace or crime” (Pen.Code, § 519) accompanied by a demand for payment to prevent the accusation, exposure, or imputation from being made. Thus, our opinion should not be read to imply that rude, aggressive, or even belligerent prelitigation negotiations, whether verbal or written, that may include threats to
    file a lawsuit, report criminal behavior to authorities or publicize allegations of wrongdoing, necessarily constitute extortion. (Philippine Export & Foreign Loan Guarantee Corp. v. Chuidian, supra, 218 Cal.App.3d at p. 1079, 267 Cal.Rptr. 457 [“a person, generally speaking, has a perfect right to prosecute a lawsuit in good faith, or to provide information to the newspapers”].) Nor is extortion committed by an employee who threatens to report the illegal conduct of his or her employer unless the employer desists from that conduct. In short, our discussion of what extortion as a matter of law is limited to the specific facts of this case.”

    See @:

    http://lesliebrodie.posterous.com/qualified-source-demand-letter-sent-by-girard