Lawyer Stephen P New Comments On Joey Ryan’s Lawsuits

Stephen P. New is a lawyer MLW fans will be familiar with. He sponsors the weekly episodes of MLW Fusion every Wednesday night. He appeared recently on The Jim Cornette Experience and spoke about Joey Ryan’s lawsuits against his accusers from the #SpeakingOut movement. New mentioned he has been in contact with Pelle Primeau, who currently has a GoFundme account up to help with his legal defense.

“Pelle Primeau had recorded a YouTube video, put it out on social media, it was about 35-40 minutes long, detailing some of the misdeeds of Joseph Meehan, professionally known as Joey Ryan,” New said. “Late in 2020, Mr. Meehan decided to sue not only Pelle Primeau, he sued Impact Wrestling for breach of contract down in Nashville, TN. He sued several young ladies and some others for what had been stated on social media.”

New continued to explain that Ryan has filed a lawsuit for $15 million against each defendant. The lawsuits were filed in California, despite the fact that several defendants don’t live there. Primeau reached out to New because of the wrestling connections they shared. New was able to get the lawsuit moved out of California to Pennsylvania federal court.

“This is a bully attempting to bully in a legal arena and we just don’t like bullies,” New said of Ryan.

New was also asked about Ryan being awarded a default judgment against an accuser recently. The defendant failed to reply to the lawsuit in time, leading to the judgment.

“She will probably, most likely, be forced to file bankruptcy, any of these defendants, if they are not able to satisfy a judgement. The interesting thing about that, Jim, is that intentional conduct and punitive damages can’t be bankrupt out.”

New continued to say that they would still be on the hook to pay punitive damages.

“Bankruptcy is only a limited option for these defendants if he wants to pursue that doggedly for a number of years and that’s no fun. The young lady that you mentioned, he got a default judgment against her. Default judgment is when somebody doesn’t respond to a lawsuit. At that point, the matter of did she do it is over.”