The Chisinau Court of Appeal rejected the request of ex-prime minister Vlad Filat's former lawyer, to relocate the case in which he is accused of defamation. The magistrates ruled to resume the examination in the court of first instance, where the file was originally assigned. It concerns the Chisinau Court, the headquarters of the Centre. The ex-prime minister claims that lawyer Igor Popa damaged his honor, dignity and professional reputation after his former defense attorney declared on a TV show that he was Vlad Plahotniuc's accomplice and would continue to communicate with him by phone. For these statements, which he considers false and derogatory, Vlad Filat is seeking 100,000 lei in damages from his former defender. 

In the request to transfer the case, the defense attorney representing Igor Popa in court mentioned that there would be "a reasonable suspicion of bias towards the plaintiff side of the process." He specified that, citing the same reasons, he also submitted a request to recuse Judge Eleonora Badan-Melnic, citing the "hostility of the judge" towards the defense of the defendant, but also the fact that she would have favored Vlad Filat's lawyer. Moreover, Igor Popa's defense assumed that the other judges from the Chisinau Court, the headquarters of the Center, "will show bias due to the fact that the court in question is located in the municipality of Chisinau, the locality where Mr. Filat (having the procedural capacity of a plaintiff in this process) exercised his political activity, including as Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, therefore in the capital Mr. Filat has many acquaintances, friends who can influence the court process".

The civil panel of the Chisinau Court of Appeal considered, however, that the request regarding the transfer of the civil case for trial to another court of the same level is unfounded and subject to rejection, "since the simple declaration of a party in the process, that he does not trust the court, does not prove the bias of the judge charged with judging the case.”

In 2020, the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission of the Moldovan Lawyers Union decided to revoke the license of the former defender of Vlad Filat. The reason was a complaint filed by the former prime minister, who pointed out that the defense attorney had violated ethical norms when he declared on a television show that Vlad Filat would have been Vlad Plahotniuc's accomplice in bank fraud, would have sold seized assets, would hold bank accounts outside the country in the names of interposed persons, and would continue to talk on the phone with the former leader of the Democratic Party, Vlad Plahotniuc.

In 2017, the Popa și Asociații law firm sued Vlad Filat, asking him to pay 1.317 million euros, $105,000, and 230,000 lei, money that the former prime minister allegedly owed him for legal services provided between January 2016 and April 2017.

In November 2018, the Chisinau Court of Appeal rejected the request. Vlad Filat later accused Igor Popa of playing Plahotniuc's game. 

In the autumn of 2015, Vlad Filat was detained after the fugitive leader of the Șor party, Ilan Șor, submitted a complaint alleging that Filat had solicited valuable gifts and money from him. The ex-prime minister was convicted of influence peddling and passive corruption and received nine years in prison with execution. The reduction of the sentence due to poor detention conditions allowed the release of Vlad Filat in December 2019.

The Center for Journalistic Investigations revealed in an extensive press investigation how the former prime minister escaped confiscation of his assets seized in the corruption case in which he was investigated and convicted.