Sommer Barnard attorney Jonathan Polak has won a partial victory in the lawsuit he orchestrated against O.J. Simpson on behalf of the family of Ronald Goldman.
A judge in
However, Reuters reported, Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg delayed a decision on whether Simpson could be forced to pay the family the $1 million advance Simpson reported received for the book, “If I Did It,” which wasn’t published.
And Fred Goldman, the father of murdered Ronald Goldman, cannot collect Simpson earnings from future TV and film work because those earnings are “speculative,” Reuters said.
“We are thrilled with this decision,” Polak said in a statement. “Though we don’t know what the proceeds will be, there is still money to collect. This is a very big step toward the Goldman family finally collecting on the judgment owed to them.”
Simpson has not paid nearly $20 million in penalties incurred from the 1997 wrongful death trial of Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, his former wife. Simpson was acquitted of their 1994 murders.
Polak’s case was appealed after a
Polak, who chairs the intellectual property practice group at the
Right of publicity is a commercial intellectual property right that applies to the use of a person’s name, image or likeness in advertising and other commercial endeavors.
Karl Manders, owner of Indianapolis-based Continental Enterprises Inc., an investigative agency that specializes in intellectual property, conceived the idea that led to the lawsuit.
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