Middleton v. The Hollywood Reporter, LLC

Obtained dismissal and appellate affirmance of a Hollywood producer’s defamation suit regarding The Hollywood Reporter’s article about the plaintiff’s public feud with a former colleague.

The Southern District of Florida, as affirmed by the 11th Circuit on appeal, found that the plaintiff’s suit was precluded under Florida’s borrowing statute. Specifically, because the at-issue defamation claim arose in California (where the relationship between the two producers was centered), Florida law required that California’s one-year statute of limitations must apply (rather than Florida’s two-year statute), rendering the complaint time-barred

Middleton v. The Hollywood Reporter, LLC,  Case No. Case No. 23-12979 (11th Cir. 2025)