The parties in the UFC antitrust lawsuit are attending private mediation according to a court entry filed on Monday. The mediation is in lieu of a Mandatory Court Settlement Conference scheduled for next month.
The Court Order filed today indicated that the settlement conference was VACATED meaning that it would not go forward. The bigger question is whether the parties will settle this case before the April trial date.
The indication that the parties are engaged in private mediation infers that both parties are interested and/or motivated to see about settling this case. In most instances, the parties share the cost of the mediation (which can be very expensive). This difference from a Court Settlement Conference because one would presume that the parties agreed on a mediator(s) for this case (and likely Johnson too). The mediation most likely will happen over several days with the mediators beating down both parties on their case in an attempt to come to a mutually agreed settlement. One would assume that if this case settles, the Johnson case would settle as well. There’s no chance/reason to go forward with the exact same case next year if this one settles.
MPO will continue to follow.
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