A BakerHostetler trial team achieved a significant victory in D.C. Superior Court on Feb. 8, 2024, following a nearly four-week jury trial for a defamation case that has garnered substantial media coverage. The firm represented the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and blogger Rand Simberg, who wrote a blog post on the CEI website in 2012 claiming that a well-known climate scientist’s prominent “hockey stick” graph – purporting to show that the 1990s were the warmest decade in 1,000 years – was the product of data manipulation, among other contentious comments. Also sued were National Review and well-known conservative commentator Mark Steyn for a blog post that republished and commented on Simberg’s article.
After more than a decade of litigation, including an interlocutory appeal that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, BakerHostetler successfully obtained summary judgment for CEI. (National Review also obtained summary judgment.) That left Simberg and Steyn to stand trial, nearly 12 years after the lawsuit was filed. The team recently secured a defense verdict on two allegedly defamatory statements and a nominal damages verdict on two other statements, convincing the jury to award only $1 in compensatory damages and $1,000 in punitive damages in total against Simberg – an amount far below the plaintiff’s public $10 million pre-trial demand. Additionally, the client is owed a significant discovery sanction award, plus attorney’s fees and costs for an earlier Anti-SLAPP motion.
The team was comprised of Partners Victoria Weatherford and Mark DeLaquil, and Associates Renee Knudsen (DC) and Kristen Rasmussen (ATL).
Original source can be found here.