On Friday, Pat McAfee exercised his prerogative to move to federal court the defamation lawsuit filed against him by Brett Favre. Earlier in the week, former Ravens and Broncos tight end (and also, like Favre, a Hall of Famer) Shannon Sharpe made the same move.
Sharpe’s position is the same as McAfee’s. Because Sharpe isn’t a Mississippi resident and because Favre seeks more than $750,000, Sharpe has the right to take the case from state court to federal court.
Generally speaking, it’s better for an out-of-state defendant who is sued in state court to fight in federal court. Indeed, the first page of the civil defense lawyer playbook whenever a client is sued in state court is to see whether there’s a way to get the case to federal court.
Favre has the ability to try to send the case back to state court via a motion to remand. That would be very difficult to do here, given that Favre’s lawyer publicly has suggested that the cases are worth “millions” of dollars.
The value of the cases will be for a federal judge and federal jury to decide. And, as we’ve previously explained, it won’t be easy for Favre to prove he was defamed under the high standard applicable to public figures, or to prove that the difference between his pre-existing reputation and his post-defamation (allegedly) reputation requires significant financial compensation.
Favre may eventually regret filing these cases. Along the way, the litigation could be very illuminating, especially if/when McAfee and Sharpe’s lawyers uncover evidence that potentially proves the things they allegedly said about Favre to be true.