Stiller Law Firm Wins Anti-SLAPP Appeal for Nanny

On May 10, 2023, the California Court of Appeal decided Nirschl v. Schiller in favor of Stiller Law Firm’s client, Jewel Nirschl. Ms. Nirschl worked as a nanny for a powerful Hollywood film producer. She brought a claim for unpaid wages and also argued that the producer defamed her by making untrue and disparaging comments about her to others in the course of severance talks.

The producer moved to strike her entire case, arguing that the severance talks qualify as protected speech under California's anti-SLAPP law. The Court of Appeal agreed with Stiller Law Firm’s argument that severance negotiations do not necessarily qualify as protected speech. Context matters. Pre-litigation settlement negotiations are only protected when there is objective evidence that the parties anticipated litigation, and there was no such evidence in Ms. Nirschl’s case. Also, Ms. Nirschl’s wage-and-hour claims were not subject to being stricken because they did not arise from the defamation allegations, which weren’t protected anyway.