Leading Lawyer Warns Of Consequences For Ripple In SEC Lawsuit

A partner at Hogan & Hogan, Attorney Jeremy Hogan, has weighed in on talks about the Ripple lawsuit. The pro-XRP lawyer said Ripple would get an unfavorable outcome if Judge Torres moved the Fair Notice Defence (FND) issue to trial.

According to Hogan, there would be an FND trial only if Ripple loses its case to the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) under the Section 5 violation.

Hogan’s Opinion On The Fair Notice Defence Trial

Hogan has supportively followed up on the Ripple vs. SEC lawsuit. In recent discussions, he noted that Judge Analisa Torres’ remark about the Hinman speech drafts suggests she has yet to rule on the FND issue. 

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During the latest hearing on the Ripple vs. SEC lawsuit on Tuesday, May 16, Judge Torres stated her decision on both parties’ request to seal summary judgment motion-related documents. 

However, for the XRP community, the most remarkable part of the judge’s order was the court’s denial of the SEC’s request to seal the 2018 Hinman speech drafts.

While delivering her decision, Judge Torres said: “Whether the court relies on the Hinman documents in ruling on the summary judgment motions, they are judicial documents subject to the presumption of public access.”

While commenting on the judge’s decision, Hogan noted that the first remarks suggest that she only denied the SEC’s motion to seal the Hinman documents or has not addressed the fair notice defense issue.

The Controversial Fair Notice Defence Issue

Part of Ripple’s defense in the ongoing lawsuit is that the SEC failed to issue a fair notice before suing it for securities law violation.

In a previous hearing on April 11, the SEC filed a document supporting its motion for summary judgment against Ripple, citing its recent victory against Commonwealth Equity Services. 

Notably, the court deemed that a long-running precedent provides sufficient fair notice in the Commonwealth Equity vs. SEC case. 

Bringing it to the Ripple case, the SEC argued that the longstanding court precedent, which gave rise to the Howey test, gives Ripple a fair notice of what security is. 

The regulator further stated that its litigation with Commonwealth is an additional authority for Rejecting Ripple’s Fair notice defense.

The latest remark by Judge Torres troubled the XRP community, including prominent XRP influencer Blockchain Backer, as to whether the court has ruled on the fair notice defense.

Therefore, in a May 17 tweet, Blockchain Backer called Jeremy Hogan’s attention to the portion of Judge Torress’ remark that appears to weaken Ripple’s stance on the case. 

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He attached a part of the ruling where the judge denied Ripple’s motion to seal its revenue with XRP sales, compensation paid to crypto exchanges to list XRP, etc.

Following the influencer’s conversation with other XRP fans, he concluded the ruling suggests an unfavorable outcome for Ripple. But while responding to Backer’s inquiry, Attorney Hogan said he does not think the order will affect the summary judgment.

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