SAN FRANCISCO – March 16, 2023 – Gaw | Poe LLP announced today that it has won a civil RICO jury trial on behalf of its clients. Gaw | Poe represented three small retail stores (“the Stores”) that had received demand letters accusing them of selling certain sexual enhancement pills in violation of the federal Lanham Act and federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”).  Rather than acquiesce to the monetary settlement demands made in those letters, the Stores instead countersued the authors of the demand letters, Outlaw Laboratory and its lawyers Tauler Smith LLP, on the grounds that the demand letters were part of an unlawful racketeering scheme and thus were themselves a civil RICO violation.

Prior to the trial, Gaw | Poe had succeeded in having Outlaw Laboratory’s claim dismissed and Outlaw Laboratory subsequently entered into a settlement with the Stores and agreed to cease their demand letter scheme, which by that point had sent out an estimated 15,000 demand letters in total.  That left only Tauler Smith as the remaining counterdefendant and following a three-day trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the Stores on their civil RICO claim. 

The lawsuit is captioned In re Outlaw Laboratories LP Litigation, No. 18-CV-840-GPC-BGS, and the trial was held before Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. At trial, the Stores were represented by Gaw | Poe LLP attorney Mark Poe. Additional assistance was provided during trial by Alexandra Roybal of Vash Legal Services.