Source: Fox Is Said to Have Declined to Settle Suits for $60 Million – The New York Times
An odd wrinkle in this follow-up story concerns big time plaintiff’s lawyer Doug Wigdor. About whom I have had cause to mention previously.
At a confidential mediation proceeding in late July, the lawyer Douglas H. Wigdor asked for more than $60 million to settle several disputes with Fox News and 21st Century Fox, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mr. Wigdor proposed that the settlement be paid in a lump sum, giving him the discretion to distribute the payments, according to one of the people.
Those cases included gender- and racial-discrimination lawsuits against the company that Mr. Wigdor had filed on behalf of more than 20 current and former employees in the last several months and at least one explosive complaint that had not yet been made public. [My bolding.]
The company would not accept Mr. Wigdor’s offer and no resolution was reached, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a confidential matter. Mr. Wigdor’s proposal to settle the disparate cases altogether is considered unusual, as it is rare that there are multiple suits with the same lawyer against the same party.
So what was that “explosive complaint that had not yet been made public”?
After mediation failed, Mr. Wigdor went public last week with that explosive case, filing a defamation and racial-discrimination lawsuit against 21st Century Fox and Fox News that focused on an article about the death of Seth Rich, a young aide for the Democratic National Committee.
Ah-HA! As my father used to say whenever he wasn’t really paying attention to my stepmother but thought it advisable to pretend he was actually listening to her.