In my panic-stricken mind, it all amounted to a future locked in a Dickensian prison for perpetuity. The lizard part of my brain, however, was convinced I was doomed to live out my days in a debtor’s prison. I had stopped paying my credit card bills.
The logical, rational part of my brain processed the morning events as unfortunate but not entirely unexpected development. My psyche had a bifurcated response to this unexpected and unwanted visitor, this uniformed portent of doom. “I think I just got sued by American Express.” I responded numbly, still trying to process what had just happened. “What was that?” my wife asked as she shook awoke. “Are you Nathan Rabin?” the sheriff asked brightly before I responded affirmatively and he shoved a document in my hand reading, “American Express Vs. The next hearing is scheduled for June 10.An unexpected ring on my doorbell awoke me early one Sunday morning and I stumbled bleary-eyed to my front door and was greeted by a tall, strapping, sunglasses-wearing sheriff with an incongruously chipper expression clutching a sheath of papers. There’s also a pending Gawker motion arguing for dismissal on the basis of fraud upon the court. He added, “Whatever they file, knowing what I know about litigation funding, we are going to look at this with an eye towards sanctions.”īefore an appeal formally gets filed, a judge still needs to decide whether Gawker needs to post a $50 million bond to stay the judgment pending the appeal and whether Hogan can in the meantime conduct his own discovery about Gawker’s finances to advance his collection efforts.
Gawker sued out of business code#
Vogt responded that litigation funding “happens all the time” and is governed by the Florida code of ethics for attorneys. “I don’t like looking at all the stuff that’s published out there,” she said. Judge Campbell shrugged off the news reports, not ruling definitively until Gawker formally brings a motion, but seeming to not pay it much heed. We would like a limited amount of leave to get to the bottom of it.” “We believe this potentially relates to our efforts to get relief. “In last 24 hours hours, news reports have come out about Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel,” said Berlin. Hogan’s battle with Gawker has certainly sent a loud message, but the lessons being drawn from this case are still being shaped.Īs for Thiel, Gawker asked the judge for the opportunity to conduct discovery about who is funding Hogan.
Gawker sued out of business trial#
Now that the judge has determined what Gawker must pay, the case moves to the appellate stage where the Nick Denton-owned company is set to rally behind free speech and free press under the First Amendment plus further argue that it didn’t get a fair trial thanks to Campbell’s jury instructions and evidence that the judge precluded from being heard. We live in a world where privacy is much more important. You can throw all those other cases out the window.”Įxplaining further, Vogt said, “For the first time, the jury has put a value on privacy. He also said this “is a first-impression case. He said the $25 million punitive damages verdict was “low,” but also “proof” that the jury followed the judge’s instruction not to bankrupt Gawker. In response, Hogan’s attorney Shane Vogt argued that Gawker was stopped from making these arguments and said there’s no evidence that the jury acted with passion or prejudice. He commented that it would be “one of the largest in Florida’s history and grossly excessive compared to the conduct at issue.” The jury handed down $115 million in compensatory damages and $25 million more in punitive damages.Īt the hearing Wednesday, Gawker’s attorney Seth Berlin urged a remittitur (a reducing or throwing out a jury verdict) and compared the jury’s damages determination to awards against tobacco companies in trials over smoking deaths. Gawker attempted to argue that it was within its First Amendment right to decide what was newsworthy, but after a two-week trial that ended in May, a jury decided that Hogan’s privacy outweighed this. Daulerio essay about celebrity sex tapes. The existence of the sex tape was reported by TMZ and The Dirty by the time that Gawker had published it alongside an A.J. Hogan - whose real name is Terry Bollea - pursued Gawker for showing him in sexual intercourse with Heather Cole, the then-wife of his best friend, Tampa-area radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge. Studio CEOs Attend Latest Writers Guild Bargaining Session
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