Attorneys for Rolling Stone Magazine, Wenner Media Inc. and writer Sabrina Erdely have filed a claim in federal court disputing the cost of the defamation trial that found them liable of actual malice and awarded $3 million in damages to former Assoc. Dean Nicole Eramo.
Eramo, who is still employed by the University, sued the defendants after Rolling Stone published the now-retracted 2014 article, “A Rape on Campus,” which detailed the story of a student named “Jackie” and her alleged gang rape at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house.
A later investigation conducted by the Charlottesville Police Department found no evidence of Jackie’s claims.
Eramo argued in court she was falsely depicted in the article as being indifferent towards sexual assault victims.
Eramo said the court case cost $144,643.11, but Rolling Stone claims in recently filed court documents that the trial should not have cost more than $65,733.36. Rolling Stone is also requesting an oral argument on the disputed costs.
The filing — submitted to the court on Jan. 31 — raises six objections to the costs of the case, one of which is that a renewed motion for judgment is currently under review.
“It would be premature to award Plaintiff any costs at this time, as Defendants’ renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law … is currently pending before the Court,” according to the filing.
The filing also reviews objections to the $2,605 for private process servers and $90,377.69 worth of printed and electronically recorded transcripts.
The attorneys for the defendants further disputed $33,577.25 of printing costs, which they claim they do not need to cover when copies are made solely for opposing counsel’s convenience, and a hotel charge of $469.42 for a witness whose stay they claim exceeds the maximum witness stay charge.
In their filing, the defendants also disputed a charge of $16,497.50 for “fees for exemplification and the costs of making copies of any materials where the copies are necessarily obtained for use in the case.” This pertains to electronic discovery, or the process of searching for case information online, which the defendants claim is not completely covered in the Fourth Circuit.
“While the Fourth Circuit considers certain E-discovery fees to be taxable, it limits such taxable fees to the narrow category of fees associated with copying, as opposed to processing,” the filing said.
In total, there is approximately a $79,000 difference between what the plaintiff requested and what the defendants claim to owe in trial costs. The court has yet to set a date for oral argument.
Attorneys for Rolling Stone and Eramo did not a request for comment Monday.
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