Various Freedom Energy companies have been awarded $330,000 in legal fees by a judge after a jury previously found, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Provider Power and affiliates misappropriated Freedom Energy's trade secrets and interfered with certain Freedom Energy contracts, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports

As previously reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, a jury had previously ordered Provider Power, and various affiliates and principals, to pay $462,000 in damages plus a to-be determined amount of legal fees. The damages were awarded solely for interference with contracts, with no damages awarded for the finding of trade secret misappropriation, as the jury assigned no value to such misappropriation

See EnergyChoiceMatters.com's story for background on the case

Provider Power has said that it would appeal the verdict, and that it wholly disagreed with the case's outcome

Counsel for Provider Power provided the following statement: "The most recent order in the case awards an extravagant amount of attorney fees to the Plaintiffs in this action. While the trial court has some discretion in awarding fees in a law suit for the misappropriation of trade secrets, no NH court has ever awarded attorney fees where the jury in the case determined that the trade secrets at issue were worthless. In this case, the trial court improperly took it upon itself to create new law in awarding attorney fees where the jury verdict valued the trade secrets at issue at $00.00. As with many other questionable decisions made by the trial judge that prejudiced Provider Power, the company will appeal the ruling and is optimistic about relief from the Supreme Court."

See the Union Leader for more