July 22, 2022
Recent Developments in Mlazgar vs. JTH Lawsuit
Agent vs. Agent legal conflict reveals some noteworthy changes and upcoming milestones
In February 2021, Minnesota-based lighting agent, Mlazgar Associates, filed an eye-opening lawsuit against rival lighting agent, JTH Lighting Alliance, and several ex-Mlazgar employees who had recently joined JTH. Mlazgar accused the ex-employees of unlawfully accessing and saving confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information after their employment with the agency was terminated. Mlazgar also alleges that JTH conspired with the ex-employees to gain a competitive advantage. A seventh ex-employee was later added as a defendant.
Each lighting agency is based in Minnesota, but the lawsuit centers around lighting agent activity in Wisconsin, primarily in late 2020.
Related: Lighting Agent Accuses Ex-Employees of Stealing Trade Secrets »
1. Defendants change up their legal teams
Since the case’s inception, all of the defendants – JTH, JTH principals and seven former individual Mlazgar employees who departed for JTH – have all utilized the same law firm for legal defense, Cozen O’Connor.
In a very noteworthy move, Cozen O’Connor has been removed from the case and will no longer represent any of the defendants. Concurrent to the withdrawal announcement, the defendants announced new representation:
-
JTH and JTH Principals will be represented by the law firm Chestnut Cambronne.
-
All seven of the ex-Mlazgar employees will be represented by the law firm Bassford Remele.
The change of attorneys in a case that has logged 155 filings in 17 months, on top of what seems to be reams of discovery documents will certainly require a quick ramp-up for the newly appointed legal teams.
The decision to no longer utilize one law firm to defend all ten defendants also seems like a sound strategy to better defend the best interests of the seven former Mlazgar employees. The legal tactics used to defend JTH’s best interests might not be 100% consistent with the strategies that protect the best interests of the former Mlazgar employees who are accused of a different type of wrongdoing.
2. Know your competition
A side effect of the Mlazgar vs. JTH lawsuit is that the discovery process is giving Mlazgar a much deeper look into normally-private company information of their lighting agent rival, JTH. During the discovery process, the court has ordered JTH to comply with Mlazgar’s discovery requests and hand over some very detailed financial company information.
Mlazgar has also had numerous discovery requests denied by the court, but they still will be receiving some very private information about their competitor’s business. JTH has been ordered to produce financial documents from 2018 to the present, including profit and loss statements, income statements, balance sheets, statements of retained earnings, and statements of cash flows, but not “granular level” information such as general ledgers and accounting journals.
Related: Mlazgar vs. JTH Legal Battle Reveals Eye-Opening Details »
3. New Scheduling Deadlines Ordered
The court pushed out deadlines due to some recently incurred case-related delays. The new schedule is below. The discovery process is staged to occur over the next eight months and the new trial date has been set for October 2, 2023.
August 1, 2022 | Deadline for joining additional parties. |
October 31, 2022 | Deadline to complete Fact Discovery. |
November 15, 2022 | Deadline for Non-Dispositive Motions to be heard. |
November 30, 2022 | Deadline to Serve Plaintiff’s Rule 26 Expert Reports. |
December 20, 2022 | Deadline to Depose Plaintiff’s Experts. |
January 16, 2023 | Deadline to Serve Defendants’ Expert Rebuttal Reports. |
January 30, 2023 | Deadline to Depose Defendants’ Rebuttal Experts. |
February 20, 2023 | Deadline to Serve Plaintiff’s Expert Reply Reports. |
March 15, 2023 | Deadline to Depose Plaintiff’s Experts. |
April 3, 2023 | Expert discovery shall be completed. |
April 17, 2023 | Deadline for Non-dispositive motions on Experts. |
May 15, 2023 | Deadline for Dispositive Motions to be heard. |
October 2, 2023 | Trial date |