LOS ANGELES (CNS) – While the former CEO and chairman of MediaLink awaits the outcome of his appeal of a judge’s dismissal of the dismissal of the businessman’s defamation suit against a United Talent Agency attorney, the same judge has ordered him to pay $75,000 in attorneys’ fees.
Michael Kassan sued UTA lawyer Bryan J. Freedman in Los Angeles Superior Court for slander and libel stemming from a statement the attorney made in March to Deadline in which he called Kassan a “pathological liar.”
Freedman brought an anti-SLAPP — Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — motion in April. The anti-SLAPP law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
On May 21, Judge Daniel S. Murphy found that Freedman’s remarks were statements of opinion and he dismissed Kassan’s case on free-speech grounds. Due to Freedman prevailing on the anti-SLAPP motion, the judge on Tuesday awarded the attorney $75,000 in attorneys’ fees, plus $1,570 in costs. Freedman had sought just over $82,500 in attorneys’ fees and legal costs.
“In making this determination, the court found that some of the billing was excessive, especially for attorneys as experienced as defendants’ counsel,” the judge wrote.
Murphy heard arguments on the anti-SLAPP motion on Friday, took the case under submission and then ruled on Tuesday.
In their anti-SLAPP motion, Freedman’s attorneys were critical of the merits of the suit.
“This court has better things to do than further indulge a billionaire’s bruised ego and petulant tantrum targeting his litigation opponent’s lawyers in satellite litigation over a few words said in the heat of battle,” Freedman’s attorneys stated. “The anti-SLAPP statute was designed to stop nonsense suits like this.”
UTA bought MediaLink in 2021. Kassan says he resigned from UTA on March 6, but UTA maintains he actually was fired the next day.
“What has shaken up UTA the most is that Kassan negotiated for the right to compete if he elected to waive his $10 million severance package, which he did in his resignation letter,” the suit stated. “Since that time, UTA has done everything in its power to attempt to destroy Kassan with the hope that while UTA does not have a contractual non-compete, it could create a non- compete by defamation.”
Freedman “did not just say this to a few people, he said it to countless people via (the) Deadline article so he could inflict maximum damage,” the suit alleged. “Freedman broke the law by defaming Kassan, and as an agent of his clients, so too did they.”
The harm Freedman’s “false and malicious statements have caused cannot now be undone,” according to the suit brought March 28.
Kassan’s attorneys filed notice in June that they will challenge Murphy’s ruling in the Second District Court of Appeal.
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