On April 13, 2018, Judge Timothy Sanner of Goochland County, Virginia, Circuit Court dismissed a defamation lawsuit by CarMax, Inc. and CarMax Auto Superstores, Inc., against Montgomery Blair Sibley. The defamation lawsuit arose from a Press Release Sibley had issued in June 2016 alerting that a group of CarMax employees known as the “KMX Collective” had filed complaints with federal and state consumer protection agencies regarding the subprime auto loan lending practices of CarMax.
In the defamation lawsuit CarMax — though its 900 member law firm Troutman Sanders — claimed that: “In the [] Press Release, Sibley falsely claims that CarMax pays “kick-backs” in connection with the financing of some vehicle purchases from CarMax.” After almost two years of pre-trial litigation, a jury was empanelled on April 12, 2018, in Goochland County, Virginia. After CarMax, through its attorneys, rested thier direct defamation case, Judge Sanner dismissed the defamation lawsuit ruling that: “[T]he evidence, taken in the light most favorable to [CarMax], was legally insufficient to establish publication, for reasons stated on the record; accordingly, [Sibley’s] motion to strike was granted, the jury was excused, and the case dismissed.”
As a result, CarMax, without legal justification as the dismissal confirms, dragged Sibley through almost two years of legally-baseless litigation.
In an email to CarMax employees discussing the dismissal, Sibley urged those employees concerned about legal guidance to sign up with an affordable and accessible Legal Plan in order to have protection against the legal leverage that a large corporate entity like CarMax can bring to bear against an employee unprepared for and overmatched in the legal arena.
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