Plaintiffs’ attorneys focusing on paybacks – GNT NEWS

When the verdict in the Alex Jones defamation case was handed down, there was an outpouring of emotion from the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

A jury ruled that Jones and his company will pay nearly $1 billion for spreading the conspiracy that the shooting was a hoax.

Matt Blumenthal, an attorney for Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, stood by the plaintiffs in the case that day. He filed the original lawsuit more than four years ago. Now, Blumenthal said the legal battle for his clients continues, even after the verdict.

“We will go after Alex Jones and his assets to the ends of the earth, leaving no stone unturned to recover every dime possible for these plaintiffs because they deserve it,” Blumenthal said. “There are a number of legal mechanisms at our disposal, and we will use each of them to the maximum.”

Now that the jury has decided that Jones and his company must pay $965 million in compensatory damages, Blumenthal said the focus of plaintiffs’ lawyers is turning to recovering that money.

“We have already been involved in bankruptcy proceedings regarding Alex Jones’ company in Texas,” he said. “We also have a lawsuit called the ‘Transfers of Fraudulence Act’ in Texas based on some of the transfers he was involved in to try to hide assets, we believe.”

GNT NEWS’s Ted Koppy and Heidi Voight dig deep into Alex Jones’ historic libel conviction.

The legal team is also seeking punitive damages for the plaintiffs. They do so under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, or CUTPA, a law that says any person who suffers a quantifiable loss of money or property as a result of an unfair or deceptive act prohibited by CUTPA can bring an action to recover that loss.

Blumenthal could not say how much the legal team is seeking, but expects all relevant punitive damages to bring the total judgment to over $1 billion.

“Those people, those wonderful people, were robbed of safety, security, grief, their loved ones, their memories,” Blumenthal said. “This verdict is an opportunity for them to take it back.”

When Blumenthal reported original complaint in May 2018, he wrote that families of Sandy Hook victims and survivors accused crisis actors of engaging in verbal attacks, physical confrontations and death threats. The complaint alleges that some foreigners filmed with their children, and some moved as far as 3,000 miles across the country to avoid harassment.

“This is now a common occurrence. “Individuals who have lost loved ones in mass shootings face this type of harassment,” Blumenthal said.

Today, he hopes the defamation verdict will set a precedent for other families who will suffer loss due to mass shootings in America.

“We hope this result will bring vindication and comfort not only to the families we represent, but also to let Alex Jones and all people like him across the country and the world know that they will be held accountable if they engage in this type of misconduct again,” he said. is Blumenthal.

Alex Jones’ attorney Norm Pattis did not respond to GNT NEWS’s requests for comment on the next steps in the legal process. After the jury’s decision last week, he spoke outside Superior Court in Waterbury.

“Today is a very, very, very dark day for free speech,” Pattis said.

Pattis said last Wednesday that the $965 million payout was much higher than Jones’ legal team expected, and they plan to appeal the decision.

“We do not agree with the evidentiary judgments of the court. In more than 200 trials during my career, I have never seen a trial like this. And we’re very, very much looking forward to the appeal,” he said.

Pattis told reporters that he felt the families of the victims were being armed for political purposes and that his heart went out to them.