The jury has spoken. Next, the judge will.
Post-trial motions in the Sunday Ticket class action are set for July 31. That’s when the NFL will renew its motion for judgment as a matter of law before Judge Philip Gutierrez.
While it’s standard practice for the losing party in a civil case to seek post-trial relief from the judge, there’s a difference here. Judge Gutierrez threatened to throw out the case last week, criticizing the plaintiffs’ lawyers for overcomplicating it. This week, he decided not to rule on the NFL’s motion for judgment as a matter of law until after the verdict.
Here’s an important question. Will the sheer magnitude of the verdict make him view the case differently? Whatever the plaintiffs’ lawyers did, they did enough to get the jury to return an exorbitant verdict against the NFL — a verdict far larger than anything the NFL has ever faced.
He’ll enter a written ruling at some point after July 31. Then, the losing party will have the ability to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.