Bubba Cries Foul In Nielsen Ratings Tampering Case

Bubba The Love Sponge’s attorneys are accusing Nielsen of not playing fair in the ratings tampering case against their client. According to Bubba’s attorneys, approximately 75,000 documents have been dumped on them by Nielsen in their case of ratings tampering against the Tampa host, and they have not been given enough time to examine the document dump and put their defense together. Bubba’s team is requesting an extension in order to review the documents that they say were not organized or labeled in any way. Nielsen accuses Bubba of ratings tampering by contacting PPM panelists, and is demanding $1 million in damages. The two sides tried mediation in June and it failed.

Bubba’s attorney’s also say that Nielsen marked almost every single document as “Confidential,” without regard for whether the documents actually contain any confidential information. And Nielsen redacted several of the documents without providing a privilege log. They also say, as a result of Nielsen’s “intentional and bad faith conduct during discovery,” Bubba is now left with only 35 days to complete discovery before the current discovery cutoff on December 9. They say they have been unable to make substantial progress with formal discovery, largely due to Nielsen’s “persistent production delays between March and November of this year.”

Bubba is blaming Nielsen for not giving him enough time to complete depositions, challenge Nielsen on the confidentiality designations, evaluate the redactions, and prepare and file motions to compel the Plaintiff to provide documents responsive to its discovery requests. Bubba’s team also says due to Nielsen’s document dump, expert witnesses have not been provided adequate time to form their opinions and draft their expert reports.

Bubba is asking the court for a 30-day extension of the discovery cutoff, until January 9, 2017.