14 DAY TRIAL // Brandi Cochran was awarded nearly $8.5 million (€6.5 million) late last year in the case against Price Is Right producers, after she claimed wrongful termination of contract. A judge has overturned that decision, so a new hearing will be taking place.
As we also noted on a couple of previous occasions, Cochran told the court that her ordeal on the show started in 2007 when she fell pregnant the first time.
She unfortunately miscarried but was pregnant again in 2008. A short while afterwards, she was also out of a job because she’d been fired – because of the baby, she believes.
E! Online reports that the judge overturned the initial ruling that would have seen Cochran walk away with $8.5 million (€6.5 million) as compensation.
The problem with it was that the judge assigned to the case back then failed to instruct the jury properly, which might have swayed jurors to award Cochran the compensation.
“Judge Kevin Brazile said that in February, two months after Team Cochran declared victory, a state Supreme Court ruling affirmed the defense's argument that Brazile should have instructed the jury to determine whether pregnancy discrimination was a ‘substantial motivating factor’ in the producers' decision,” E! writes.
Judge Brazile is convinced that, had the jurors been instructed accordingly, the verdict could have been different.
The same view is shared by Mark Haddad, the defense attorney, who is now convinced the producers won’t have to pay the model a dime.
“We're very pleased the judge recognized that if the jury had been properly instructed, they may well have ruled in favor of The Price is Right,” Haddad says.
Then again, they may not. Carney Shegerian, who reps Cochran, is holding out hope that a new trial could actually net them even more money in damages.
The next hearing has been set for March 22. We’ll see then how this plays out.