Paul Clifford, attorney at the California Anti-SLAPP Project, was quoted in a Businessweek article today discussing the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s $1 billion lawsuit over Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service Inc. ratings of structured investment vehicles.
The judge’s ruling in the case rejected a request by the rating companies to dismiss the case under the California anti-SLAPP law.
“It’s not a ruling on the merits of the case,” said Paul Clifford, an attorney at the California Anti-Slapp Project, a Berkeley, California-based law firm that specializes in similar lawsuits. SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation.”
Moody’s and S&P have 60 days to appeal the ruling, and the appeals court would take a fresh look at the evidence without considering whether Kramer erred in his decision, Clifford said in a phone interview. Neither side can present new evidence, he added.