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No it hasn't. The defendent pled something about it in its answer. That doesn't mean anything. You can plead anything you want in an answer. There's no penalty for saying stuff that's completely irrelevant or bogus, and most of the content of an answer typically bears little resemblance to the reality of the lawsuit.

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Ouch ... I understand the point you are making ... parties do throw into their answers what would be deemed "argument" and not fact -- the WPTs response is a textbook example -- but the answer always "bears resemblance to the reality of the lawsuit." Much of it may be greek to the layperson, but it is the seminal document in the defense's response and one that they are bound by. If they make a mistake they can under certain circumstances move the court to amend it, but make no mistake that it is a very important document and has everything to do with the reality of the lawsuit.

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The answer just denies everything in the complaint and then alledges every possible defense to the complaint's causes of action, even though most of the alledged defenses will be completely bogus. (Note: I'm talking about answers in general. I haven't read the WPT's answer in particular.)

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I am not sure we disagree here ... perhaps more in the way you said it. We both agree that an answer contains all sorts of boilerplate objections and pleadings, many of which ultimately won't have anything to do with the action. Sort of the kitchen sink approach. Where I took exception was when you said "the content of an answer typically bears little resemblance to the reality of the lawsuit." It may be that all sorts of other stuff gets thrown in, but much of the content is directly related to the lawsuit, and failure to properly plead can cause all sorts of problems for the Defendant. As I mentioned in my OP, I understand and agree with the point you were making ... I just wanted to clarify that the answer is a serious document that does have value.


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I assure you that WPTE paid at least $100,000 for the preparation of that answer.

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The WPT will spend $100,000 in legal fees soon enough, but you're probably off by about $95,000 if we're just talking about drafting and filing the answer.

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You think? I sat back after reading your post and conclude we are probably both wrong. $100,000 is probably high, but $5,000 is way low. In fact, what I am sure of is that $5K was spent in the first meeting with the client and the reading of the Complaint. How much more after that is a perfect NVG subject.

The defendants' attorneys -- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher -- are an AmLaw 100 law firm ... they are the 14th largest law firm in the US by some measures. The average annual compensation to partners exceeds 1 million per year. I figure that the lowest hourly rate that an associate in that firm charges is $200 per hour. The senior partners rates are probably in the $400 - $500 per hour rate. There is also another law firm involved. A total of 4 lawyers signed the Answer. This being NVG, I am guessing you have the following:

Intial meeting with WPTE - 8 hours
Subsequent meetings and phone calls - 20 hours
Reading and analysing the Complaint - 20 hours
Internal meetings to discuss the Complaint with multiple attorneys involved - 40 man hours
Legal research on the issues, including drafting of memoranda - 40 man hours
Drafing, revising and finalizing the Answer - 40 hours
Miscellaneous meetings, phone calls, etc. - 10 hours

Guestimate on total hours: 200 hours @ an effective hourly rate of $250 per hour (which would only be this low if the associates did a lot of the work, which is likely)

Total cost to prepare the Answer: $50K.

Then again, I could be wrong. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

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