Miami federal judge Marcia G. Cooke has given the OK for JPP’s lawsuit to proceed against Schefter/ESPN for publishing private medical records after JPP blew off a finger in a 2015 fireworks accident.
Lest we forget, Florida was also the scene of Hulk Hogan’s recent successful $140 million lawsuit against Gawker Media for posting a video of him having sex without his permission.
That ruling effectively bankrupted Gawker, which recently sold to Univision. The new owners are shuttering the Gawker Web site, and founder Nick Denton is leaving the company.
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The JPP vs. ESPN trial is expected to start next August, according to ProFootballTalk.
Citing First Amendment protections, ESPN has asked the judge to toss the lawsuit. That didn’t work.
If JPP is half as successful as Hogan, it could cost Schefter, ESPN and ESPN parent company Disney millions.
Via the New York Post:
Schefter and ESPN had a perfect right to report on the accidental maiming of a star athlete.
But the “crux” of the case is whether Schefter went too far by sharing JPP’s medical records with his 4 million-plus Twitter followers:
