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Federal jury awards $120M to coal firm in defamation, RICO swimsuit towards lawyer
January 21, 2026, 11:00 am CST
An Alabama federal jury returned a $120 million verdict Thursday towards a former Conrad & Scherer managing associate as a part of a defamation and racketeering lawsuit towards the legal professional. (Picture from Shutterstock)
An Alabama federal jury returned a $120 million verdict Thursday towards a former Conrad & Scherer managing associate as a part of a defamation and racketeering lawsuit towards the legal professional, in response to a narrative by by Law360.
A jury within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Alabama awarded the Drummond Co., a coal firm primarily based in Birmingham, Alabama, $26 million in compensatory and $26 million in punitive damages towards legal professional Terrence Collingsworth on the defamation claims and $68 million on the claims beneath the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, in response to the story.
Due to the trebling of damages beneath the RICO statute, the award will find yourself totaling $256 million, in response to the Drummond Co.’s attorneys at Starnes Davis Florie, the story stated.
Collingsworth, a managing associate of Florida-based Conrad & Scherer’s Washington, D.C., workplace from 2008 by 2015, started submitting fits in 2002 alleging that the Drummond Co. paid a paramilitary group that offered safety to homicide three union leaders in Colombia, in response to Law360. Lots of the fits have been dismissed.
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