The following list provides a sampling of noteworthy newsgathering cases that LSKS has handled.

Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001). LSKS represented the media defendants before the United States Supreme Court in a case arising out of the radio broadcast of a tape recording of a cell phone conversation between two teachers’ union officials who appeared to be advocating the use of violent tactics in a labor dispute. The Supreme Court, in upholding the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims brought under the federal wiretapping act, reaffirmed the principle that the news media cannot be held liable in damages for the publication of truthful information about a matter of public concern absent a governmental interest of the highest order, at least where the news media played no role in the source’s unlawful acquisition of the information.

Anderson v. Suiters, 499 F.3d 1228 (10th Cir. 2007). LSKS won dismissal of intrusion and constitutional invasion of privacy claims brought after a police officer allowed a television reporter to copy portions of the videotape of a rape that had been provided to police to prosecute the crime. LSKS also won summary judgment on a publication of private facts claim based on the television station’s subsequent broadcast of excerpts from the tape in its news report. The Tenth Circuit affirmed.

Webb v. CBS Broadcasting, Inc., 2011 WL 4062488 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 13, 2011). LSKS successfully defended CBS against claims that it invaded plaintiffs’ privacy and caused emotional distress by filming them in the backyard of a home in connection with CBS’s reporting on an ongoing murder investigation. The court granted summary judgment in a decision that constitutes a significant precedent vindicating the news media’s right to photograph persons and activities in “plain view” from a public street.

Pitts Sales, Inc. v. King World Productions, Inc., 383 F. Supp. 2d 1354 (S.D. Fla. 2005). LSKS successfully defended King World’s newsmagazine Inside Edition in an action arising out of an undercover investigation of traveling door-to-door magazine sales companies. The court entered judgment in favor of King World on claims for violation of the federal wiretap statute, trespass and fraud. 

Four Navy SEALs v. Associated Press, 413 F. Supp. 2d 1136 (S.D. Cal. 2005). LSKS successfully defended The Associated Press and its reporter against invasion of privacy and copyright infringement claims arising from the publication of photographs depicting Navy SEALs detaining Iraqi prisoners, which were disseminated with a news report about a Navy investigation into the existence of the photos and the conduct they depicted.

Jensen v. Sawyers, 130 P.3d 325 (Utah 2005). LSKS attorneys represented a television station on appeal in vacating the bulk of a jury verdict awarded to a doctor captured on a hidden camera prescribing Fen-Phen weight loss pills. A Utah jury awarded damages of over $3 million to the doctor who filed suit based on his claim that a reporter posed as a patient and secretly taped the doctor’s offer to prescribe certain drugs without following state guidelines. The Utah Supreme Court reduced the damage award to $500,000, concluding, inter alia, that punitive damages could not properly be awarded in the absence of constitutional malice.