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Re:Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction by slg on Friday June 10, 2016 @03:18PM (#11879164)
Well run media companies have insurance for this type of thing. When Mother Jones lists the cost of that lawsuit, they combined both the costs they paid with the costs the insurance company paid for a total of $2.5 million. You need to separate those two costs out if you want to prove the Mother Jones was legitimately on the brink of bankruptcy due to the lawsuit. Otherwise it just appears to be an insurance company doing the job they are paid to do.
Re:Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction by sangnoir on Friday June 10, 2016 @04:09PM (#11879612)
> Well run media companies have insurance for this type of thing

It looks like you haven't been paying close attention to the Gawker suite: Gawker also had insurance, but Bollea strategically dropped a charge that would have let Gawker claim against insurance (and at the same time reducing the total amount he would receive). This suite isn't about damages: it's about bankrupting Gawker for better or for worse. There's nothing that suggests a similar strategy can't be employed against Mother Jones.

Re:Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction by slg on Friday June 10, 2016 @05:18PM (#11880093)
I have been following the Gawker case and if the prosecutors can adjust the case in such a way to avoid insurance it tells me that either Gawker didn't have the right kind of insurance or that the insurance company found Gawker liable in such a way that they lost the right to coverage. Either way, that is a Gawker problem and not a problem of legal precedent.
Re:Gawker Files for Bankruptcy, Will Be Put Up for Auction by untog on Friday June 10, 2016 @03:51PM (#11879469)
Even still, it's $650k out of Mother Jones's pocket. Unless you're Buzzfeed or a TV network, that's more than any media organisation can easily swallow.

Plus Gawker's case was specifically structured to avoid an insurance payout. A blueprint for others in the future.