In a major victory for Fox Rothschild client Retailer Web Services (RWS) LLC, a federal court has barred the plaintiff in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from presenting key evidence at trial regarding alleged cyberattacks.
Fox Rothschild litigators Adam Wolek, Melissa Scott and Dominique Carroll persuaded the U.S. District Court in New Jersey to award sanctions against plaintiff HomeSource Corp. after a meticulous and persistent multi-year defense.
HomeSource alleged more than $100 million in damages from alleged cyberattacks and RWS’s publication of a newsletter. It must now pay attorney’s fees, expert fees and court costs involving a lengthy evidentiary dispute, which dates to April 2019.
HomeSource pursued claims under the Lanham Act for false advertising, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, tortious interference and unfair competition.
The Fox team sought sanctions after HomeSource and its counsel failed to present any evidence of the cyberattacks, arguing the company disregarded court orders, failed to preserve evidence and then employed delay tactics to cover up their actions.
The court agreed, awarding RWS sanctions under Federal Rule 11 and Rule 37.
“HomeSource’s counsel has been well aware of the deficiencies in its evidence preservation for some time,” Special Master Stephen M. Orlofsky wrote in his opinion before outlining a “pattern of willful misdirection, concealment of the facts regarding the evidence that existed, and, failure to comply with several Court Orders that would have exposed their failure.”
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