{"id":833837,"date":"2026-09-02T06:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T06:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/833837\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T06:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T06:16:13","slug":"united-states-taft-wins-complete-defense-verdict-in-10m-palm-beach-county-defamation-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/833837\/","title":{"rendered":"United States – Taft Wins Complete Defense Verdict In $10M+ Palm Beach County Defamation Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TS<\/p>\n

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Taft Stettinius & Hollister<\/p>\n


\n <\/a><\/p>\n

More<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n


\n \"Taft
\n <\/a><\/p>\n


\nEstablished in 1885, Taft is a nationally recognized law firm serving individuals and businesses worldwide, in both mature and emerging industries. <\/p>\n

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\n Taft lawyers secured a defense verdict for a client following an eight-day jury trial in Palm Beach County, resolving a defamation claim brought by a real estate agent against a prominent developer. \n <\/p>\n


\n United States \n <\/p>\n


\n To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com. \n <\/p>\n

Taft lawyers secured a defense verdict for a client following an
\neight-day jury trial in Palm Beach County, resolving a defamation
\nclaim brought by a real estate agent against a prominent
\ndeveloper.<\/p>\n

The jury\u2019s deliberations ended when they found, as to
\nquestion 1, the statements in a mailer distributed by Taft\u2019s
\nclient, Arnie Galman, were not proven to be false and defamatory,
\nresulting in a complete defense victory. The plaintiff, Marcy F.
\nJavor, sought at trial $8 million in harm to reputation and $2
\nmillion for mental anguish, plus punitive damages. Pre-trial, Javor
\nalso sought $4 million to $8 million in lost profits, but her
\ndamages expert was stricken and not allowed to testify.<\/p>\n

This case arose from a commission dispute involving
\nGalman\u2019s $12 million purchase of a teardown home along
\nFlorida\u2019s Intracoastal Waterway, in the Royal Palm Yacht
\n& Country Club community in Boca Raton. Galman asserted Javor
\nagreed to waive her commission on the purchase in exchange for an
\nexclusive future listing of a newly constructed, $30 million-plus
\nmansion on the property. Javor\u2019s broker called that agreement
\n\u201cworthless\u201d, and filed suit to recover the 3%
\ncommission.<\/p>\n

Galman distributed a mailer to roughly 800 residents of the
\ncommunity warning against this agent\u2019s practices, and was
\nsued for defamation. Notably, as the case progressed, the plaintiff
\nwas granted leave to add a punitive damages claim, which the trial
\njudge found was reasonable under Florida statutory law. That ruling
\nwas affirmed on appeal [Galman v. Javor, 423 So. 3d 398
\n(Fla. 4th DCA 2025)].<\/p>\n

Taft was engaged to try the case just three months before jury
\nselection was to begin.<\/p>\n

The Taft trial team was led by partners Alan Rose, Taft\u2019s
\nFlorida chairman (Board Certified \u2013 Business Litigation and
\nAppellate Practice) and Gregory Weiss, a member of Taft\u2019s
\nexecutive committee (Board Certified \u2013 Civil Trial Law and
\nBusiness Litigation and a Fellow of the American College of Trial
\nLawyers), and associates Filiz Akkaya and Steven Grotch with
\nsupport from a team of paralegals and professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis complete defense victory shows the jury understood
\nour client\u2019s statements were not false,\u201d said
\nTaft\u2019s Weiss. \u201cOur client is grateful to have his name
\ncleared, and we are proud of the role that our Taft trial team
\nplayed in successfully trying this case involving one of Palm Beach
\nCounty\u2019s most affluent communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TS Taft Stettinius & Hollister More Established in 1885, Taft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-833837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}