As part of a partially successful anti-SLAPP suit brought against it, Awakend has been ordered to pay $33,176 towards NewULife’s legal costs.

In a filed June 3rd tentative ruling, Judge Fish ruled that, for the purposes of its anti-SLAPP suit, NewULife was deemed a “prevailing party”.

This was based on NewULife managing to knock out two of NewULife’s six causes of action.

It should also be noted that the $33,176 awarded was

significantly reduced, given Defendants obtained only partial success and given the simplicity of the portion of the motion granted, i.e. Plaintiffs’ failure to meet their burden in the second prong of the two-prong anti-SLAPP analysis.

NewULife’s attorneys had originally asked for $98,887 in legal fees, a lot of which the court deemed was tied to “extra work”. Motions for sanctions against Awakend were also stricken.

Judge Fish’s order also provides us with some insight into the progress of the case.

What we already know is Awakend filed suit against NewULife and founder Alexy Goldstein (right) in late 2022.

Upon learning of the lawsuit I was surprised to find Awakend’s Complaint detailing a fictional scenario wherein NewULife provided BehindMLM with articles to publish.

BehindMLM published a lengthy rebuttal to Awakend’s claims and covered the rest of the lawsuit on January 3rd, 2023.

The next significant update in the case was NewULife filing its anti-SLAPP response in March 2023.

Being a state-level filed case tracking document filings is difficult on my end. I can see filings but don’t necessarily know what they pertain to or contain.

Nonetheless, here are the updates from Judge Fish’s June 3rd order;

On October 20th, 2023, the court partially granted and partially denied NewULife’s anti-SLAPP suit. The two out of the six causes of action dismissed pertain to

tortious interference with contractual relations and breach of contract based on the publishing of defamatory articles on the website BehindMLM.

Awakend appealed the decision with the outcome of the appeal still pending. The court stayed proceedings on November 7th, 2023, pending the outcome of Awakend’s appeal.

As I understand it, Judge Fish’s order comes into effect if Awakend’s appeal is denied. Failing which the tentative order becomes an actual order.

Looking forward, the court has scheduled a Status Conference for December 12th, 2024.

Outside of the courtroom recent developments have left the status of Awakend unclear.

Sometime after Awakend launched in late 2022, co-founder Danelle Meoli quietly left the company. This should have been significant as Meoli (right) was the face of Awakend’s marketing during prelaunch.

I don’t believe why Meoli left Awakend has been publicly disclosed.

Fast forward to March 2024 and it emerged that Awakend co-founder Rodney James had purchased Q Sciences.

At the time Awakend’s products had been given prime real-estate on Q Science’s website.

I next noted in mid April that Awakend’s product had vanished from Q Sciences’ website. Like Meoli’s departure, again no public explanation has been provided.

Awakend’s website is still up but doesn’t name any executives. Over April 2024, SimilarWeb tracked just ~2500 monthly visits to Awakend’s website.

Scrubbed of any mention of Awakend and James, Q Sciences website also remains online.

Q Science’s official FaceBook page hasn’t been updated since April 30th. Awakend’s social media presence appears to have disappeared entirely.

 

Update 25th November 2024 – Update from NewULife regarding Awakend’s appeal;

A court has dismissed Awakend’s appeal challenging a prior fee award, marking a decisive step in the resolution of this dispute.

Although Awakend’s appeal has been dismissed, Awakend must still pay New U Life’s costs on appeal.

Adding to the momentum, Awakend’s legal team has officially moved to withdraw from the case.

New U Life continues to pursue its own appeal to knock out the remaining portion of Awakend’s case and recover additional attorneys’ fees.

BehindMLM documented Awakend rebooting as Sol People in June 2024.