The Georgia Supreme Court vacated and remanded a Court of Appeals decision dismissing a defamation action brought against an attorney

Dr. Armin Oskouei, the owner of two medical facilities, filed a lawsuit alleging that Zachary Matthews, a defense attorney who represented clients in cases that tangentially involved the medical facilities, made defamatory statements suggesting that Oskouei performed “illegal” surgeries, among other things. Matthews moved to strike the defamation lawsuit pursuant to Georgia’s anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (“anti-SLAPP”) statute, OCGA § 9-11-11.1, which allows a trial court to strike certain claims based on a person’s right of petition or free speech when there is no “probability that the nonmoving party will prevail on the claim.” OCGA § 9-11-11.1 (b) (1). The trial court denied the motion to strike, but the Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in Matthews v. Oskouei, 369 Ga. App. 568 (894 SE2d 141) (2023). The Court of Appeals held that Oskouei could not establish a probability of prevailing on his defamation claims because he had not overcome Matthews’s defense of conditional privilege. Id. at 573-575. In this respect, the court determined that Oskouei had not established that Matthews acted with “actual malice,” such that “Matthews knew that his statements were false or that he made them with a reckless disregard for the truth.” Id. at 575.

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