Trial Date Set for Hulk Hogan’s Civil Case Against Gawker Media

– At a court hearing today in St. Petersburg, Florida, Judge Pamela Campbell of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Pinellas County has set the trial date for Hulk Hogan’s civil case against Gawker Media for March 7, 2016. This regards the leaking of Hogan’s sex tape on Gawker’s website.

Campbell also noted that she would wait to rule on an emergency motion by Hogan’s lawyers to seek additional discovery to determine who leaked the sealed material from the sex tape, specifically, the transcripts of Hogan using racial and homophobic slurs in the tape, which were later printed by the National Enquirer and Radar Online. This led to Hogan’s firing by WWE.

– In addition, TampaBay.com reporter Anna Phillips posted a series of notes from today’s court hearing. Hogan’s lawyer is reported as telling the judge as saying, “His career is done, he’s been fired from WWE.” This is despite the fact that his lawyer claimed that Hogan voluntarily resigned from the WWE last week.

In addition, Hogan’s attorney cited a “a potential violation of a protective order,” and he accused Gawker of being responsible for the leaked comments in an effort to ruin Hogan’s public image ahead of the trial. Gawker’s legal team argued that the media company did not break any laws and there is “a long list of people who knew about Mr. Bollea’s use of racist language long before Gawker learned about it.” In addition, Gawker’s lawyers stated that Hogan’s current efforts are “the last refuge of a desperate litigant”

Credit: TampaBay.com