Judge Cuts $5M Award to Professors in Publisher Dispute

A federal judge in Philadelphia has reduced a $5 million punitive damage award to two law school professors who said they were defamed by a legal publishing firm that released a book addendum bearing their names even though they didn’t work on it.

U.S. District Judge John P. Fullam said there was little dispute about the facts. But he said the $2.5 million awards to University of Pennsylvania professor David Rudovsky and Widener Law School professor Leonard Sosnov exceeded the actual damage to their reputations.

The Philadelphia Inquirer says Fullam cut the award for each man to $110,000, which combined with $90,000 in compensatory damages means that each would get $200,000.

A spokesman for West Publishing Corp. hailed the ruling but said it did not go far enough.