Perkins Coie Secures First Amendment Trial Win for dot.LA in Defamation Suit

Court Victory Marks Third First Amendment Win for Separate Clients in Recent Months

WASHINGTON, D.C., and SEATTLE (August 4, 2023)—Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that a firm litigation team led by David Perez, Lauren Ruben, Torryn Rodgers, and Marten King has secured a First Amendment trial win for client dot.LA, a tech focused media company, and a journalist David Shultz, in a defamation claims dispute with Mullen Automotive.

The successful outcome for dot.LA before the Superior Court of the State of Delaware came after Mullen Automotive filed suit against dot.LA and Mr. Shultz for publishing a critical article on Mullen Automotive. Judge Sheldon K. Rennie found in his order that the defamation claims failed as a matter of law because the statements in the article were either "substantially true" or purely protected opinion speech under the First Amendment and therefore "not capable of defamatory meaning."

The court victory is the third straight win secured by the Perkins Coie First Amendment team for separate clients in recent months, following two prior cases in Pennsylvania and Washington state.

The First Amendment trial team was led by partner David Perez, the firmwide chair of the Business Litigation Practice, senior counsel Lauren Ruben, and associates Torryn Rodgers and Marten King.