A court case against Williams, filed by ROKiT for allegedly failing to fulfill sponsorship requirements, has been thrown out after the lead prosecutor was found to be ineligible to practice law in the jurisdiction where the case was filed. ROKiT, a telecommunications company, was the title sponsor of the Williams team for the 2019 season. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 campaign was delayed, and Williams terminated their deal with the sponsor.
ROKiT owner Jonathan Kendrick filed a $149 million legal case in Florida earlier this year, claiming that Williams had lied about the team’s competitiveness in 2019. Kendrick argued that Williams had not received the rights they were owed after the postponement of races in 2020. Williams, on the other hand, cited late payment of fees from the previous year and decided to cancel the three-year deal, which was only a third of the way through, as the team was in talks for a takeover by Dorilton.
The lawsuit accused Williams of making fraudulent statements about their competitiveness and claimed significant financial loss and damage to their reputation. However, the case was dismissed by the Floridian court after the lead prosecutor, Larry Klayman, was found ineligible to practice law in the Southern Florida District Court due to a suspension imposed by the District of Columbia Bar.
In response to the dismissal, Kendrick expressed his surprise but mentioned that they had already planned on moving the case to California for strategic reasons. He also suggested a political motivation behind the dismissal, citing Klayman’s past unsuccessful lawsuits against former US presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and the incumbent Joe Biden.
A spokesperson for Williams confirmed the dismissal of all claims filed by ROKiT against the team and its former directors. They stated that Williams had obtained an arbitration award against ROKiT in the UK and secured confirmation of the award by a US federal court. Williams intends to rely on the legal system to resolve the dispute and expects to receive the awarded amount.
Kendrick confirmed that the case would be refiled in the next two weeks, but he predicted that it would take “two or three years” for the process to reach the same stage. Despite preferring mediation over litigation, Kendrick believes that he has no choice but to proceed with legal action to uncover the truth about what happened with the sponsorship.