Date: 09-24-2016

Case Style:

Case Number: L 000411 06

Judge: John Hunt Dumont

Court: Superior Court, Morris County, New Jersey

Plaintiff's Attorney:

John Olsen

Defendant's Attorney:

Paul Bond

Description: Morristown, NJ - Jury Awards More Than $40 Million in Defamation Case

NuWave Investment Corp., Troy Buckner and John S. Ryan sued BackTrack Reporters, Inc. on a defamation theory claiming to have been damaged as a result of the publication by Backtrack, a subsidiary of First Advantage Corp., in 2002 about them and their company.

Plaintiffs Troy Buckner and John Ryan were principals of NuWave Investment Corporation (NuWave, and collectively, plaintiffs), which Buckner founded after he left employment with defendant Hyman Beck & Company (Hyman Beck), the employer of defendants Alexander Hyman and Richard A. DeFalco (collectively, the Hyman Beck defendants). Defendant First Advantage Litigation Consulting, LLC, formerly known as BackTrack Reports, Inc. (BackTrack), prepared background investigative reports regarding the financial industry for clients considering investment opportunities.1 BackTrack prepared such reports on Buckner, Ryan and NuWave. Those reports included statements, many of which were attributed to the Hyman Beck defendants, that plaintiffs considered defamatory.

Liability was established by a jury in 2011. The award in that cases was set aside.

Outcome: The jury unanimously found that NuWave Investment Corp. proved by a preponderance of the evidence that it suffered "actual special damages" as a result of the publication of a BackTrack report. It awarded $2,057,446 in special damages and $12.3 million in actual general damages to NuWave.

The jury awarded $18.5 million in damages to Buckner and $6,750,000 in damages to Ryan. Finally, the jury awarded $800,000 in punitive damages after agreeing unanimously that NuWave proved by clear and convincing evidence that BackTrack "engaged in malicious or willful and wanton conduct."

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Defendant's Experts:

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