Uber wins sanctions against lawyer for sexual assault plaintiffs

By David Thomas

Feb 17 (Reuters) - Uber Technologies UBER.N is owed attorney fees after a lawyer representing passengers in litigation over alleged sexual abuse by the company's drivers used confidential corporate information in other lawsuits against the rideshare giant, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Tuesday.

Bret Stanley of the Johnson Law Group was ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Cisneros to pay Uber $30,000 within 30 days as a sanction for violating a protective order covering materials produced during evidence gathering in the case.

Stanley is among a group of attorneys representing passengers in the consolidated litigation who accuse Uber of failing to conduct adequate background checks on its drivers or implement appropriate safety measures. Uber has denied wrongdoing, arguing in part that its drivers are independent contractors rather than employees.

Stanley violated the protective order by disclosing the confidential names of certain Uber internal policies in other, unrelated lawsuits and to other plaintiffs attorneys, Cisneros said. Uber claimed Stanley used the disclosures as roadmap for seeking evidence in other lawsuits.

An Uber spokesperson said in a statement that Stanley disregarded the law "by treating confidential discovery documents as a litigation war chest for unrelated cases."

Stanley had no immediate comment.

Cisneros said it was "impermissible and unreasonable" for Stanley to determine that his opponents' confidential documents could be disclosed outside the case. "Some sanction is warranted for Stanley’s unilateral disclosures," the judge wrote.

Cisneros rejected Uber's demand that Stanley pay more than $168,000 in attorney fees, however, finding the request excessive. The judge said Uber had not shown it was harmed by Stanley disclosing the names of its policies.

"To the extent that any public exposure resulted, it occurred only temporarily on the docket of a New Jersey state trial court, with no indication that either those disclosures or that case more generally attracted any public attention," Cisneros said.

The judge said Stanley must also pay a yet-to-be-determined amount of attorney fees in connection with a second sanctions request by the company, finding that he searched through documents in the case in order to use them in a separate lawsuit.

A federal jury in the consolidated Uber litigation earlier this month ordered the company to pay $8.5 million to a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by a driver when she was 19.

The case is In re: Uber Technologies, Inc., Passenger Sexual Assault Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, 3:23-md-03084

For plaintiffs: Bret Stanley of Johnson Law Group

For Uber: Laura Vartain, Allison Brown and Jessica Davidson of Kirkland & Ellis; and Michael Shortnacy of Shook, Hardy & Bacon