Wall Street Journal Stung By Libel Verdict

Fri., March 21, 1997

From Staff And Wire Reports

A federal jury Thursday decided The Wall Street Journal libeled a brokerage firm in a 1993 story and awarded the now-defunct company $222.7 million - the biggest libel verdict in history.

Money Management Analytical Research of Houston claimed in its suit the article contained false information and helped force it out of business.

The seven-person jury said Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Journal, and reporter Laura Jereski should pay $22.7 million in actual damages and $200 million in punitive damages.

“We were chronicling the difficulties of this company; we did not cause them,” Paul Steiger, managing editor of the Journal, said in a statement. The company will ask U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. throw out the award, he said.

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Wall Street Journal Stung By Libel Verdict

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