Orlando partners John Benford and Nick Freeman obtained a favorable verdict for less than 2 percent of the amount demanded by the plaintiff after a two-week trial in the Southern District of Florida. Wilson Elser was retained to defend a national distributor of firearm parts in a lawsuit brought by a gun manufacturer that asserted a total of 12 claims based on false advertising, breach of contract, breach of warranty and various defamation counts. The court awarded our client partial summary judgment on 9 of the 12 claims one week prior to trial. The case then proceeded to a 10-day jury trial on two of the breach of warranty claims and one defamation claim. The plaintiff demanded $40 million prior to trial. During the course of the trial, John obtained numerous favorable rulings in limine from the court excluding key portions of the plaintiff’s evidence. During closings, the plaintiff requested an award of $8.5 million from the jury. The jury found for our client on both breach of warranty claims, and for the plaintiff on the defamation claim, awarding plaintiff $500,000 in damages, which represented less than 10 percent of the amount the plaintiff requested from the jury at the conclusion of the trial.