{"id":3081,"date":"2024-10-23T21:42:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/dc-defamation-boutique-secures-8m-jury-damages-verdict-in-libel-case\/"},"modified":"2024-10-23T21:42:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T21:42:20","slug":"dc-defamation-boutique-secures-8m-jury-damages-verdict-in-libel-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/dc-defamation-boutique-secures-8m-jury-damages-verdict-in-libel-case\/","title":{"rendered":"DC Defamation Boutique Secures $8M Jury Damages Verdict in Libel Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<p>Litigators who helped Dominion Voting Systems secure a $787.5 million defamation settlement with Fox News in April 2023 have prevailed in an unrelated District of Columbia libel case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>  <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<p>A federal jury awarded more than $8 million in damages to a New Zealand businessman represented by Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch, which successfully vindicated his reputation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<p>After a six-day trial, the jury returned a $4 million damages award to plaintiff Christopher Chandler on Monday followed by an additional award of more than $4 million in punitive damages Tuesday, according to the verdict forms in the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<p>U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta presided over the jury trial and previously granted pretrial motions in favor of Chandler, finding the false allegations libelous per se in September 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!---->  <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<p>The jury found defendant Donald Berlin liable for preparing a background report falsely portraying Chandler as an agent of Russian organized crime. Steven M. Oster of Oster McBride, who represented Berlin, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<p>Meier and Watkins previously practiced defamation law at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/nationallawjournal\/2024\/04\/25\/clare-locke-securing-overseas-alliance-plots-smart-growth-after-departures\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Clare Locke<\/a> and served as co-counsel for Dominion alongside Susman Godfrey. The founders of Meier Watkins announced their new practice in August 2023 four months after helping Dominion settle claims with Fox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!---->  <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<p>They\u00a0did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-84c6be9c=\"\">\n<p>Chandler, founder of the United Arab Emirates-based venture capital firm Legatum, released a statement through his company announcing that he intends to use the jury verdict award to fund philanthropic programs.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Litigators who helped Dominion Voting Systems secure a $787.5 million defamation settlement with Fox News in April 2023 have prevailed in an unrelated District of Columbia libel case. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[761,294,532,720,392,3884,2772,395],"class_list":["post-3081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-boutique","tag-case","tag-damages","tag-defamation","tag-jury","tag-libel","tag-secures","tag-verdict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}